Was the Apple really cheap in 1981 compared to its contemporaries? By 1985 it was the most expensive 8 bit computer being sold if I remember correctly. I had a //e.
There is no doubt it is expensive, but if you fit their target market, there was a fair probability you would get pretty enamored with the fit and find the budget. There are tradeoffs (some significant) to that approach, and Apple had and continues to possess a cultural tendency to be pretty purist about it for some products some of the time, but it has served them well so far (though I see eerily uncomfortable parallels of the ][ era to today's iPhone era).
He's literally taking the piss out of Apple, because it was expensive even then.