It sounds like for your use case the chrome book is a better option. For my use case (creative professional doing lots of video editing) the mbp is the better option. One client project pays the cost of the MacBook and then some. My point is, everyone has different use cases. To you, it’s a ripoff. To me, it’s indispensable. So to answer your question of why anyone would pay for a mbp, it’s because it fits their use case.