> why wouldn't (Apple) hardware be worth the price?

How about "not worth the cost" instead.

Not worth the cost of losing the freedom to run your own software and make your own choices.

Commodity laptops might be slower and less flashy, but if Linux goes in the wrong direction I can install FreeBSD or OpenBSD or my own vibe-coded OS or whatever.

Western society has for the last few decades surrendered principles for convenience, and the state of modern computing is a microcosm of the consequences. You're all consumers now, instead of users.