As you noted, most people buy Apple because it works and does what they need it to do. They aren't aware of the anticompetitive bullshit Apple pulls, but they'll absolutely criticize the shit out of it if it's brought to their attention.
[0] I'm resisting the urge to call them Mac Objectivists. They program in Objectivist-C, naturally.
I don't know what you've seen, but as an Objective-C programmer myself, and one who knows quite a few others, we tend to be disgruntled against Apple now rather than fanbois.
If you buy a product that's more expensive, you'd be a fool if it's not superior to other products, so it's hard not to get personally invested in the idea that they are.
My mother has been using Macs for some decades now because she’s not tech literate.
She's by far the least tech-oriented close relative I have. And she has the longest Mac-only usage and ownership streak of anyone I know in meatspace, too.
† Except for dark patterns, because even the ones that don't give a fuck about computers can be quick to notice when things change for bamboozlement reasons instead of mere vanity or tool complexity increase.
I get it, I can't expect to get into "the zone" without investment into detailed and up-to-date knowledge of my current environment, and any relearning is at best merely incremental and at worst a brand new trend that is (or will become) widespread enough to be unavoidable.
But I can't stop envying the superficially "clueless" stoicism of that waning generations that only wanted some kind of glorified typewriter and anything else they've got along the way is still gravy on the top.
Maybe this was true in the era of “mac hipsters” somewhere between late 00s and early ‘10s, but I have zero idea what the article author is on about if they are talking about the current state of things.
Heavy majority of people around me use macs, and I have never noticed that vibe. Even online, it isn’t really a thing anymore for almost anyone. For most, macs are just their workhorse machines. People don’t rave about macos or anything like that, people just use it. Some number of them also have gaming PCs too, so it isn’t really even a topic of discussion. Ffs, even my mother these days uses a mac (m1 air), and she is not even really tech literate.
I remember there were those passionate “PC vs Mac” flamewars back then, but these days it feels like most just found what works for them, and anything else or what everyone else is using is not something they care about at all.
The only times i even hear people having some strong personal opinions about macs these days, they tend to come from people who don’t actually use them.