Whenever I hear somebody moving to a Macbook and make any sort of complaint onkine, lots of people unhelpfully tell you to buy a $1000+ iPhone and that will solve all your problems, or when an Android user is "switching to iPhone", a similar thing happens with "just use a Mac". Why the hell do you need to purchase all the expensive devices to just use one?
Most of the time, using an iPhone, Mac, etc., does not "just work". Maybe the UI is simply not very usable (not just Liquid Glass, see MacOS's terrible implementation of a settings app, iOS not having an option to combine the quick settings and notifications), third-party devices (headphones, chargers, tablets, etc.) simply do not work well (no, "get the iDevice" is not helpful!), iOS having the most ass file management that may as well not exist, all the different bugs poking around everywhere (through my own experiences with iOS* and my friend's with MacOS), etc. "Give more money to Apple to fix it" is not good advice and does not help to solve anything.
Why is it that, when Apple has inherently worse hardware, everybody seems to put up with it? On their Macs, you have 60 Hz LCD displays on a $1000+ laptop, no good ports selection unless you spend thousands more, ridiculously priced memory and storage upgrades that would be a death sentence to any other company, very shallow key travel that feels terrible to type on compared to other options, etc. As for their iPads, you have similarly not so great displays on a relatively high end tablet unless you spend thousands on a tablet with an uber-fancy M5 chip (why would anyone need that???), a keyboard case that is so expensive despite feeling like a cheap membrane keyboard you got on Aliexpress and being so top-heavy, etc. Who in their right mind would purchase a $550 set of headphones made of ridiculously heavy metal, with uncomfortable cushions, terrible battery life, mid ANC, and several year old innards?
How has Apple manipulated so many people with their marketing? ~~I don't really see anything quite like it in other product segments.~~ What is the secret apple sauce?
*note that I currently run an Android phone, but I have my issues with them too that I won't get into. My particular device is very bloated and incredibly annoying to work with sometimes, but it's what I've got. On my laptop I happily run Linux, where the device simply listens to me which is a nice change of pace
edit: Actually, no, I think something similar occurs with Nintendo (in video games) and Disney (for films)
I think there are many reasons, some of them are:
I could go on and on and on. I have never used an apple product in my life and am a Linux FOSS enthusiast by the way. But I think it is pretty east to understand.
That is true, my specific device has a pretty bloated ROM that doesn't listen to me at all! Whenever I install an app through F-Droid / Obtainium / Aurora Store / etc., it does a "security check" that always fails (what's the point then?) and tells me not to install this app, despite having given the install unknown apps permission already! And whenever there's an internet problem, the phone tells me to disable private DNS (I'm using NextDNS), and there's no option to disable that. The phone also has a whitelist for SMS messaging apps, meaning I have to choose between the stock app and Google Messages, which isn't great.
Most of the initial advertising and such can be disabled though, and with Android I can use a custom launcher (Kvaesitso) that feels infinitely better than both the stock launcher and whatever iOS uses! And I can actually access the files through USB like a sane person, which is way better than the delicate dance with iTunes that Apple required!
If I ever get another device, I would definitely go with one that supports something like LineageOS or GrapheneOS (maybe CalyxOS if they come back), or perhaps mobile Linux will be strong by then? Who knows.
Indeed, even if somebody was oblivious to how privacy invasive Windows is, the OS is annoying nowadays and is too bloated to run on lower end devices. If only a large manufacturer pushed Linux on the desktop as an option for a reduced cost (currently it's just Valve, Lenovo on some of their business class devices, and smaller manufacturers like Framework and System76). Imagine if Dell, Asus, etc. had the guts to say screw you Microsoft, and they developed their own spin of Linux for their own hardware that ran better, that would be neat. Unfortunately, money. It seems like MS is currently one of the main drivers for Mac adoption...
People like knowing what they are expecting, they don't like surprises. I think this makes sense, given that Apple has been doing a similar design ethos of metal and glass for ages now (even in product categories where it isn't all that great in, like their headphones and headset).
Perhaps given rising prices for everything now, more people will become price conscious? Dunno really