The new M1 Mac Mini might literally be the first 'affordable' Apple machine that isn't underpowered. Will need to cough up some $ for display adaptors if you want more than one monitor for development though.
$600 is a lot for a small dev who already has a computer. What if they’re a windows gamer and they’re happy with their old desktop? $600 is a lot to many people if it’s not strictly necessary.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, you're right. Besides, the cheapest Mac Mini M1 is $1000 in my country. Not everyone can afford that.
Apple is not obligated to make tools for every platform...
Apple does more than just not make tools for other platforms though. They make it impossible for anyone else to make tools on other platforms that can deploy to the App store. And after a certain scale, it isn't even the development machines that are the problem, it's your CI/CD pipeline.
Don't you still need to buy a monitor and all peripherals?
I mean you also need to buy a monitor and peripherals for a PC. Since they’re not built in you could find a 1080p monitor on Facebook marketplace locally for almost nothing. If you’re just doing iOS development the Mac mini should be fine.
Doing iOS development includes a whole other bundle of costs associated with it. $1000/yr if you want to even try to sell on the app store?
Those don’t need to be apple products - the mini has standard ports.