Because it's a MacBook; with batteries in it. The value is in the mobility. If you don't need the batteries and mobility, you could buy a Mac Mini, iMac or Mac Pro.
In 2016, "buy a desktop" is no longer the only answer when talking about professional work. Like--check out what Sager offers. You can buy a fully kitted-out 17" notebook from them that meets or exceeds the top-end iMac in every respect (equal CPU, twice the RAM, significantly better GPU) except pixel density (a mere 170 versus 216) for a thousand dollars less than the top-end iMac--and you can carry it with you.
It's not uber-thin and light, no; this is a literal desktop replacement and weighs twelve pounds. It's not the machine I'd buy, because I don't need a GTX 1080 in a portable machine--but that machine is equivalent to Apple's best, actually-serious desktop while being cheaper and portable! It goes without saying that you can scale down to something that's a little more reasonable for a physical-effort-averse nerdy type and still get something that's very favorable compared to Apple's offerings, both in terms of perf and price.
Apple missed the memo: you really can have both, these days. Maybe they don't care about that audience anymore, and that's their prerogative, but it's why I'm probably bouncing back to Windows/Linux. (Dual-booting. Ew.)
But they didn't upgrade the Mini, iMac, or Mac Pro. The Mac Pro has been the current model for at least two years. The iMac is a hack that uses two logical display panels to produce the 5K resolution, because there isn't enough bandwidth for a single one. The Mini is nearing the 3 generations old mark.
Why even mention the way the iMac display works? Using the machine you would never know and its a very nice computer. The complaints about the mini and pro are legit but there is barely anything to complain about with the iMac.
It will matter once Apple decides to drop support for the current iMac. (Who knows, maybe the ARM switch will eventually happen? The G5 iMacs became obsolete over night when the Intel switch happened.)
As it stands, you can neither recycle it as an external display nor can you run Linux on it at full resolution.
Not really a "pro" complaint - just something to keep in mind if you plan to hand it on.
>> Because it's a MacBook; with batteries in it. The value is in the mobility.
For some people. But you can also look at a laptop as being the ultimate "all-in-one" PC.
The only cable you need to plug in is the power cable. For a lot of people, that's more convenient than having to deal with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and desktop with the associated mess of cables and added desk space. That a laptop is portable and runs on a battery is gravy.
It's not uber-thin and light, no; this is a literal desktop replacement and weighs twelve pounds. It's not the machine I'd buy, because I don't need a GTX 1080 in a portable machine--but that machine is equivalent to Apple's best, actually-serious desktop while being cheaper and portable! It goes without saying that you can scale down to something that's a little more reasonable for a physical-effort-averse nerdy type and still get something that's very favorable compared to Apple's offerings, both in terms of perf and price.
Apple missed the memo: you really can have both, these days. Maybe they don't care about that audience anymore, and that's their prerogative, but it's why I'm probably bouncing back to Windows/Linux. (Dual-booting. Ew.)