Right. I don't mean to dismiss the "value" of the C64. But it was more like Commodore accidentally released something good, and then sold at or below cost to run their lower-end competitors out of business. Commodore 64 obviously had a enthusiastic user base, but the users recognized the "value" more than Commodore did. Commodore's business model was selling a lot of cheap computers to people who wouldn't actually use them, so the Plus/4 was just as good as far as Commodore was concerned. And yes the Commodore 64 was seen as cheap -- you could walk into Target etc and get a computer for $250!

On the techie side of the internet now, a lot of people have a positive perception of Commodore because they got one when they were 13 or whatever and got into it. We don't hear from all the people who couldn't find a use for it or never bought the disk drive (another $250) and ended-up shoving it into their closet. At the time, Commodore was not considered a reliable well-run company. There's a reason the schools bought Apples.