It's unwise to extrapolate that the iMac Pro doesn't come with top notch support from a single instance of bad support.
I side with Apple in the Linux Tech Tips issue, though. They're under no obligation to fix it after he broke it by intentionally violating the terms and conditions.
Nice specs, but you can't upgrade the SSDs, RAM is possible but breaks warranty, can't upgrade the soldered GPU, and it's unclear if the CPU is actually upgrade-able. So I would call it disappointing, as a 'Professional' product.
It's a professional tool. When the GPU is too slow or I need more than than 18 cores or 128 GB of RAM, I'll just buy a new one. I'm pretty sure that won't happen in less than 5 years.
As for storage, I'd be crazy not to keep all important files on a backed-up RAID array. It's a professional tool, after all.
(and I keep my music on an off-site-backed-up RAID array)
Yes, I just bought one for someone at work, got a good deal at Microcenter but I’m still annoyed that I couldn’t get one with less than 1 TB and pay less; the internal drive is not where our data goes.
Unless you have a really nice RAID array, internal still beats external. I like to back up hourly (a timeboxed rsync) to an external disk (and use Time Machine too on Macs).
It's not about performance, it's about location and a little bit about capacity. Everyone in the office keeps the data on a largish NAS over a 10 gigabit network.
"Apple REFUSED to fix our iMac pro" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-NU7yOSElE
"The Apple Store Genius Bar broke my $5000 iMac pro" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_NRcy5mxU