frankeed

You mention that Pixelmator Pro uses Metal 2 in your review, but might also mention that if the graphics card in your computer doesn't support Metal 2, and if you aren't running High Sierra (which you do mention), you won't be able to run Pixelmator Pro. For those of us on older machines, one or both of these may be deal breakers. GPUs from 2012 on, apparently support Metal.

Apple has trouble rolling out timely updates of multiple existing products, let alone innovate. The past few years have been very disappointing.

"We have great desktops in our roadmap."
Cook's starting to sound like The Donald.

I wouldn't say robbing me, but Apple has consistently made decisions that make it much more expensive to own their products. For example, the refurbished 15" mid-2012 MBP with the high density screen (1680 x 1050) I'm typing this on cost me C$1,599. Because it's user upgradeable, it now has 16 GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. Not much I do with it stresses the CPU, which is still faster than the dual core processers they sell in current Macbooks for multi-core tasks, and the GPU is still able to keep up for the most part. The SSD launches programs impressively quickly, again, it's not as fast as a new machine, but still fast enough. Assuming they made 40% profit on this machine, they would have made $640 on it. 

However, to get a similar sized, entry-level replacement would cost me C$2,791. If I wanted to future-proof it by getting 1TB of storage, it would be more than C$3,300. Assuming Apple's profit margins are the same, they now make about C$1,120 for the base unit, almost double. The improvements and lack of upgradeable parts, whether I want them or not, make it hugely more expensive. Granted, everything is "better" but it's not an obvious improvement like I saw when I moved from my PowerBook 5300 to a Pismo, years ago. Sure, the screens are lovely, but when I sit my current machine next to my 5k iMac the difference is noticeable, but not annoying. I also need to add a dongle to my budget, if I want to use any of my old backup drives, a USB drive or an SD card. The keyboard is definitely better on the old machine. 

So, while Apple isn't "robbing" me, they've made decisions that greatly improve their gross profits, marginally improve some parts of my computing experience, but cost me a lot more. 

I'm typing this on a 6-year-old MBP. A few years ago I lost a key and replacing it was a five-minute process at the local Mac service provider. Glad to see Apple's making progress on the reliability of their keyboards. /s