Even if they didn't who cares? For example, every motor vehicle manufacturer has an unprofitable racing effort and generates interesting concept cars and special editions to fill out the line.

Apple can have a flagship line that's break even or worse to anchor the high end. It's literally inexplicable, and I think framing it in the rational actor model is a mistake, it's best explained as a fuckup.

I wish I could upvote this (and your other comments) 100 times. Amazing high quality machines will keep the design and dev community on Mac for years to come, churning out the apps that help to make the iPhone ecosystem work.

Bleeding power users to alternative systems creates vulnerability.

These arguments would be the same for Microsoft circa 2007. Why should Microsoft care if the designers, developers, and tastemakers hate their products? They've got so much lock-in that people will be forced to use their stuff forever. Wheee, we're invincible. We all know how this turned out.

I'm running up against low memory issues on my 16gb MBP lately. I absolutely cannot responsibly update my Apple product right now because of the 16gb limitation on the MBP. It does matter!

I'm getting ready to bite the bullet and go back to Linux desktop.

My theory is that they strongly believe PCIe-over-Thunderbolt (now -over-USB-C) will obviate all need for internal expandibility/upgradability, and they went all-in on a form-factor (the garbage-can Mac) to take advantage of that... and then the market has stubbornly refused to co-operate by releasing Thunderbolt peripherals equivalent to internal components. So they're playing chicken with said market, probably under Intel's repeated promises to make it happen.

Which won't happen until Intel is more willing to loosen their grip on Thunderbolt. With Thunderbolt, in order to even get in the door, you have to file an application to request to get into the development program which they promise to get back to you within three weeks in order to just get the datasheets needed to start designing. Conversely, protocols like PCIe and USB, you can get the chips, the datasheets, and development boards, with no signup process, just waiting a few days for the items to come in the mail. When you treat your customers like that, it's no surprise that the takeup on thunderbolt has been tepid.

Not to mention you can only buy controllers from intel, and we are talking $50+ a controller, its totally insane.

When my machine isn't portable, I'd much rather have my upgrades mounted inside a generously-sized case than a tiny one surrounded by a rat's nest of cables.