You can get a new M5 Max MacBook pro with 128 GB unified ram (targeted by Antirez for DwarfStar4) even after the Apple price increases, it's less than 7899 by at least $1000. And you probably won't pull more than 100 Watts.

You are comparing US pricing with EU pricing. EU pricing includes 21% VAT and currency conversion "rounding up".

The cheapest 128GB Macbook Pro here costs €7.949,00.

No doubt a better value than the HP, and will depreciate a lot less quickly, but just as expensive. Unfortunately, not being able to run Linux is a breaking point for me.

I have one of these. Got it a few weeks before the price increases. On the 14" version charging is limited to 96 watts, but the chip can pull north of that with adequate cooling, so the battery will literally drain while plugged in.

It isn't a problem for me, more amusing than anything else (I run in Low Power mode 90% of the time) but worth knowing for anyone thats thinking about pushing the hardware to its limit 24/7.