I think there is a little bias here from power users. I rarely see any non power users gobbling up storage in large quantities. In fact 256Gb is probably the most common I have seen in the last 10 years and there's aways at least 80-100gb free for most people even on machines that have had several windows versions go through them.

Not sure what the iCloud point is. I don't use it other than for stuff I want to share between my iPad and my Mac. It's not required and to use it as overspill storage is a stupid idea. And as for my Mac I've got a 512Gb one and it has 268Gb free still. That contains everything I have ever done on a computer from 1984 to date, every photo I have ever taken, every bit of code I've written.

Now the pricing I agree is shit but if it's a really a problem, my usual advice to people is to tidy your shit up, stop hoarding stuff and stop moaning about it.