Same here vis a vis Linux for my personal use, but the worse thing from Microsoft's perspective is how it pushed me towards buying Apple and recommending Apple products to everyone I know. As a techie, I used to hate Apple. I can't stand the closed ecosystem, I can't stand the product markups, and whenever friends or family would ask, I'd tell them they could get more powerful systems for a fraction of the cost if they just stuck to Windows. Nowadays I do the exact opposite. I tell them that while they'll be paying a markup, it's worth it because Apple has at least trended in the direction of privacy and has also continued delivering on usability. I'm not bombarded by ads and news when I open my Mac. So while I will never get my family and friends to use Linux, I have absolutely caused them to spend tens of thousands of dollars on Apple products instead of Windows. That's where I think these anti-consumer behaviors could really hurt Windows in the long run, if enough techies start driving their social circle to Apple.
That’s been my experience since the early 2000s: people recommend Macs (or especially iPads) for the people who will be calling them for support, and it’s generally delivered well.
One thing I will note is that the markups have been a lot less in practice than claimed since Apple stopped using PowerPC. Most of the people I know who did comparisons ended up finding the Mac either equivalent or, frequently, cheaper once they adjusted for equivalent quality. Sure, you can buy a $400 PC but you end up buying 3 of them over the same service life and have a shoddy display for that entire time. The bundled crapware PC vendors use to subsidize the low-end stuff is really not helping the impression of their products, either (I know multiple people who had an unusable system out of the box that way. They now use Macs.).
The markup is in the RAM/storage upgrades. Your stuck with Apple's prices at time of purchase for the most part and if you need it fast then you have to go some way more expensive SKU to get it. Only the Mac Pro (which is already insanely expensive) and the Intel Mac Mini (where you can only upgrade the RAM) are user expandable. And who knows if the Apple Silicon Mac Pro will be.
The mistake is buying a $400 laptop. Although anecdotically I've known a lot more people whose MacBook has died than PC laptops.
Just a small quibble — the intel Mac mini dropped upgradeable ram in 2014, with one of the worst apple product refreshes ever. The 2014 Mac mini was worse than the 2012 in almost every way — my theory is some engineer realized they could save money by essentially slapping a MBA logic board in the Mac mini, and that’s what happened.
27 inch iMacs had easily accessible ram upgrades until they were discontinued. 21.5 iMacs (post 2012 refresh) did also have upgradeable ram, but it was a pain to do (dimm slots were on the back of the main logic board, meaning you essentially had to remove every other component and the logic board).
2012-2015 MBP Retinas could have the storage upgraded because it was a discrete SSD. I think they were largely proprietary or specially made, but they could be upgraded.
MBAs up until 2017 could also have the storage upgraded.
I wish that ram was upgradeable on apple silicon systems, but I understand why it’s not (I assume it’s an integral part of the SoC).
