I think most people seem to forget the cost of previous Macs along with the devalued USD. Simple comparison of a 1998 G3 Mac that went for $1299.99
Because it's not a base model.
A better question is why would someone buy something they don’t need? Most people don’t need 64 GB or 32 GB. I think 16 GB is considered the sweet spot for many people. I’d say people that just do web browsing and light tasks are overpaying if they get more than 8 GB.
I think 3 years is too short, and 6-8 years too long. IMO, 5 years is a reasonable time horizon for planning purposes. After about 5 years I find I am looking for a new machine, and it has never been just because I am lacking RAM. 5 years is when Apple considers it "vintage," and latest MacOS support starts to get dropped. New connectors and interfaces are not supported. Screens get improved. The list goes on.
Oh man, you’re gonna love this:
On Guard! The Story of SAGE : IBM Corporation, Military Products Division : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Innovations in computer technology as weapons in the Cold War.archive.org
I love the film both for its depiction of archaic computer hardware, and for the drama. MEMORY…. Is described with a soundtrack out of a horror movie. The punch cards, the displays, and the core memory! It’s actually fascinating what they were able to achieve with such technology. The truth is that developing a video monitor using that system is really impressive. Unfortunate that it was developed for military purposes, like so much other technology. I’d love to see one of those displays in person. It looks like maybe 30 inches? I’d also love to know what that device was that one of the operators was touching to the screen. A primitive touch screen interface?
Sounds like you actually have a need for more RAM, so get it.
Simple: Speed!
Nothing to do with forcing people or lacking room. It is all about speed. You cannot have 400Gb/s using an external module. The lines would be too long and create all kinds of interference.
As someone who purchased a 24gb m2 air, I get your thinking. It gets used up most often on cached files, so I know it's not getting used much beyond 16. I expect the reason it's unpopular is that there's a very diminished return on those last GB of RAM. It isn't because they don't help; it's because they don't help much. On a laptop, it's often overkill. However for those that it isn't, either they'll fork out the money, or it's better to get a mini studio.
Apple had soldered RAM even before Apple Silicon, aka on intel macs with slower RAM. So the reason was not purely speed. It's simply price control and increasing margin, so people won't just upgrade RAM themselves for less.
It might have been like this in the past but with Apple Silicon it is now a physical limit. New architecture = different paradigm.
Evolution has it that animal species who only live in caves lose their eyesight over time. It's evolutionary beneficial to not waste any resources on growing organs you can never make use of. The idea that humans only use 10% of their brains is a science myth based on an over interpretation of one study.
Another myth in need of better citation. When RAM was scarce people always needed more, but had to live within the limits of the available. Now that RAM is plenty programmers can be wasteful, but that doesn't mean their need will grow endlessly over time. Just like humans won't eat twice as much in ten years and then four times as much in twenty. Even the fattest person has an upper limit of food consumption. Most people don't buy 32GB memory, because they know they can't eat that much. Even at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
I would love to get 32GB of ram, but the price was just not worth it. I do have a couple of apps that could take advantage of it but alas I'm on 16gb - its not the end of the world, but perhaps next time, I'll pony up the extra cash
