I did not spring for AppleCare. I hope I don't regret it. I previously purchased it for a 24" LED Cinema Display, 27" LED Cinema Display and Thunderbolt Display and never needed it. All are currently retired after more than a decade of service and still being used by my kids. I ended up getting what I thought was a pretty great deal on the XDR at MicroCenter in the states, $4,499.99 USD.
I parallel the idea/story of this display with the 2004 30" Apple Cinema Display. At launch, it was really a big step forward for displays and didn't work with a slew of Macs without specific video cards. XDR has similar bullets. The 30" was introduced at $3,299 (rough inflation adjusts to $4,625.88 today). Price wise, they're in the same ball park, sans stand. Apple later reduced the price to $2,999 (rough inflation adjustment to $3,940 today). With the introduction of an XDR display in the iPad and also rumors the technology will adorn the MacBook Pro line, my bets wouldn't be on Apple discontinuing the XDR, rather, reducing the price a bit as the tech becomes more 'standard'. However, with the crazy supply and semi conductor crisis ongoing, I wouldn't bet on a price reduction happening anytime soon.
It's possible we'll see Apple toss us a bone and release a consumer grade "Apple Thunderbolt Retina Display", probably something in the 27-30" range. The XDR has never been marketed at that level, so my guess would be the XDR stays as is for 'pro' level folks. I would bet the consumer version would have similar pricing to the current LG 5k Ultrafine. With TB/USB4, it's more possible than ever that the display could be a docking station for the next gen Mac lineup. Since other manufactures have found a way to finally create thunderbolt hubs, major expansion could be offered through a display that wasn't fully maximized with the original Thunderbolt Display.
