> It is very odd to encounter someone who has such a narrow view of computing that they cannot imagine someone not upgrading their RAM.

Uncalled for and means the end of the discussion after this reaction. Ofc I can imagine that, it's just usually a dumb decision.

That you did not have to upgrade the ram means one of two things: You either had completely linear workloads, so unlike me did not switch to a compiled programming language or experimented with local LLMs etc. Or you bought a lot of ram in the beginning, so 8 years ago with a hefty premium.

Changes nothing about the fundamental disagreement with the existence of such machines. Especially from a company that knows better. I do not expect ethical behaviour from a bottom of the barrel company like Apple, but it was completely reasonable to expect better from framework.