The key word there is "business" - most laptops geared for corporate (in PC world at least) are the thin and light metal chassis ones. They are easily $1200 for "pretty good" hardware but a sleek look and feel. But the same (core component) hardware in a budget laptop might be $500-800. Business laptops with best in class hardware are often over $2000.
Compared to what?
$2-3k for a dev laptop since forever, innit?
Maybe a few years ago, but you can get a fairly beefy 8c16t thinkpad for less than $1300.