If it were the only computer in existence, probably not. But it gets measured relative to all of its competitors, which get updated more than every two years and have their prices go down when they're old.

Also it's not my primary work tool. If your company wants to buy you one, great, but spending my personal hobby budget on outdated gear is a harder sell.

And yes, $43/month over 3 years is a lot of money. $1550, in fact. Breaking it down like that to make it feel like a smaller number is a shitty trick that only works because we have bad instincts at math.