I have no idea what a "custom WiFi icon" is but I'm guessing you bought something with prebundled apps. That is irrelevant to the discussion of consistency in one OS versus another (but of course important in the buying process but that's another matter).
>or they're using a different protocol then the one I have at home.
You are making a pretty bad case for Mac as Apple is the one that creates and enforced all kinds of "standards" instead of using what everyone else agreed upon years ago. Apple doesn't implement the full WiFi standards, they use their own standards for everything from chargers to media streaming protocols to connectors.
There's a lot of good to be said of Mac but it using the same protocols as everyone else is not one. Unless you ban everything else and live in an Apple world but then standards are completely irrelevant anyway.
On Mac? Both work 100% of the time on every one I've purchased.
That's the difference. 100% vs 80%. If my software deployments broke 20% of the time at work, I would be fired.
Linux supports far more hardware out of the box than either MacOS or Windows.
People pay the "premium" because they do not have to make any effort in selecting which laptop will work out of the box. Effort takes time, time is money. In general, people would rather pay the money upfront, rather then pay with their time later.
I've been a Mac user ever since 2013 and I feel like it's consistency beats any other desktop environment.
I never have to worry about something not working.
I don't have to tell my colleagues at the end of a project that I'm sorry but I'll be off for a couple hour because my custom wi-fi icon just crashed the system. I don't have to wonder whether my laptop will connect to the airport wifi or they're using a different protocol then the one I have at home.
I know I could customise every aspect of the look and feel of my desktop, I just no longer want to.
I want to get work done.