I don't mind paying the premium because they just work. I've owned 3 over the last 10 years and each are still running perfectly to this day. No need to ever do anything to them. It helps that I'm not much of a gamer and work in the creative field so they offer everything I need. The M series chips are also blazing fast.
I can totally see how they'd not work for a lot of people though, and I know lots of people love to tinker with PCs!
Lucky you didn't buy the 2011 Macbook Pro like me. The GPUs on this model terminally overheated due to a manufacturing fault. Not the premium experience I was expecting!
You could sidestep the issue by modifying the bios to disable the AMD chip, and only use intel integrated video. That did work to give you a somewhat usable laptop & retrieve your data. When you fork out for an Apple product though that is precisely the kind of thing you want to avoid!
I have a 2015 Macbook still working just fine apart from the battery. I'm planning to get that replaced and I'll keep using it until Apple no longer allows updates. Honestly, it's a really good computer for my needs.