If I only had a nickel for how many defender posts I've read making Apple RAM out to be super special and thus rationalizing $200 for 8GB more vs. commoditized RAM available at retail for quantity 1 unit at peanuts. Here's absolute evidence that Apple RAM is not so expensive because we know they don't just throw away "nearly $200" cost for nothing.
And once again, I'm looking for those defenders who wrote thousands of posts about how 8GB was plenty for nearly all users to now rip into Apple for "forcing too much" RAM on all buyers. But I haven't even seen 1 such post yet... as if they didn't really mean what they were writing but just pushing whatever the company was selling. If they believed what they wrote as recently as last few weeks (and often throughout 2024), they should now find fault with Apple for "forcing" too much. Where's those comments? (rhetorical- we know- as Apple makes such hops, so evolves their passionate opinions to align with the Corp).
Congrats to all who look forward to buying base spec Macs at third party retailer sale prices. We finally were thrown a consumer bone instead of having every bit of focus on shareholder maximization. More of this Apple! More!
A magical side effect of delivering more consumer value is that it can move customers to BUY MORE and/or BUY NOW... which then benefits them shareholders too via volume accumulations instead of squeezing every penny out of each transaction.