I'm with you but not because of price. It is still under $4K with a 1TB SSD, which is right in line with my other MPBs. I'd expect to spend about the same on the now inevitable Dell.

LOL

3.846,71 euros ~= is ONLY for the 4 Tb SSD.

If I buy the cheapest 15 inch and only upgrade the SSD I have to pay: 6.986,98 € ~= 8.200,00 USD

Prices in Europe are always higher than the states. On time I found out that I would save 100 euros If I took a flight to New York, stayed there for and maximum of 2 days to buy it :D

The prices are just INSANE, I built a Hackintosh for 800 euros and it is faster than the latest iMac 2017 with the maximum specs. Damn, I'm even using an Haswell CPU (i7 4790k) not the latest ones.

I get that Apple is making it's own hardware and it's good enough to rival top brands, example: Apple SSDs are in line with Samsung 970 Pro M.2 in terms of performance. Also the industrial design is second to none but it's just a terrible investment even for programmers.

With iPhone 8: same story, if you drop it and you're unlucky to break the screen and the back plate: It is cheaper to buy a new iPhone :D

Ah, yes: eight grand is a lot for a laptop. I can't imagine jumping through hoops for an OS I'll mostly experience as a browser and a command line, but if you're set on it I'd definitely hold out for a NYC trip in the Fall when the weather is nicer ;)