I don't know what price point you are shopping at, but if you think Neo is 'robbery' I think you are being unfair considering the type and quality of device you can get at the same price point - lots of laptops at the £599 price point are total junk.
Just looking at 8gb doesn't tell you the whole picture - that's like just looking at how many litres a cars engine is as the only part of determining if a car is good or not.
800 euros for 8 GB and 512 SSD powered laptop in 2026 is robbery, regardless how it gets packaged.
And if I want to go with 256 SSD, which is a ridiculous SSD size also in 2026, my Thinkpad had it back in 2014, it is still 700 euros.
As for the Apple distortion field regarding its high quality, unfortunately many people do tend to discover why paying, even extra on top of those 800 euros, for Apple Care matters.
For me it’s not about the numbers It’s 800€ for a laptop that’s not total junk. I could probably get the same 8 or 16 and 512 numbers in cheaper laptops, but they would be [what I would consider] sad annoying plastic junk.
What I see is 800 EUR for a sturdy body, a solid screen, a solid keyboard and good battery life. That's the baseline for what I want in a laptop. Only after these boxes have been checked, we can start talking numbers. And you know what, even 8 and 256 is still perfectly usable for me. Two years ago I was still using a MacBook Air with 256 GB SSD, happily. Now my wife is using it, happily.
Just looking at 8gb doesn't tell you the whole picture - that's like just looking at how many litres a cars engine is as the only part of determining if a car is good or not.