You need to be rich to afford a new computer every 3 years?
I sit on desktops for 5 years+ with modest opportunistic upgrades, and I consider that extravagant.
I think people forget that $4k+ for a computer is Quadro workstation territory.
And that's with the general Nvidia price gouging these days, and paying a premium for ITX as well.
$2K is very expensive for a PC.
- One of them supports a family of 3 on one income. - One of them is single and supports only themselves. - One of them is married with dual-income and no kids.
This has nothing to do with wealth.
I really only upgrade if my current PC cannot do a thing that I need it to do.
M3 MacBook Pro 16" is $2499, roughly the same as an equivalent Dell XPS / Precision laptop (for the same price Dell typically has half the screen resolution, much worse battery life, and more RAM)
Divide $2499 over five years, that's $500 per year. Not expensive on a developer salary in high income countries. It's a business expense.
That said, I do not find much appeal to upgrade unless there is a specific reason myself. But there seems to be something in apple customer culture where people upgrade for the mere sake of stuff like new design or colour.