Myth file
“Macs are always more expensive”
Verdict: Mostly false
Not at the entry point — a base Mac mini is genuinely competitive. It becomes true the moment you touch the upgrade options.
At base configuration Apple is not the outlier people assume. A base Mac mini undercuts most comparable small desktops, and the Air's performance-per-watt has no direct rival at its price.
The picture changes on the configuration page. Roughly $200 per memory step and $200 per storage doubling is several times the market rate for equivalent capacity, and you cannot decline it, because none of it can be added later.
Resale value pulls the other way and rarely gets counted. A four-year-old MacBook still sells for real money in a way most mid-range PC laptops do not, which closes part of the gap across a full ownership cycle.
HouseCommentary
This is the myth the house most wants to be true and has to score honestly. Buy a base Mac and you paid a fair price. The tax is in the ladder, not the machine.