I think what's most upsetting to me is that not only are they not built to be light-years ahead, but the fact that they aren't is explicitly due to self-imposed constraints by Apple. And then because of this, they now sell a machine that's effectively the same as the one they sold 3 years ago, but now at a higher price.

This is virtually unprecedented in the history of computing, and the last time these kinds of shenanigans happened was at the tail end of the 8-bit era, and all of those companies, even ones who had a virtual monopoly on the market, don't exist anymore.