The Apple IIgs was the last and the best of the Apple II line, which had a cherished place at the heart of what we might now call hacker culture. Remember the first Apple II predated the first IBM PC by four years! Each platform had a different set of enthusiasts, and at least early x86 PCs were more business-centric.

I wouldn't compare the Apple IIgs to an 386 PC. It's not really a fair comparison; the poor IIgs would be outclassed. It's 2.8 MHz 65C816 processor was 16 bits and introduced in 1983.

The 386 benefited from two years of technological advances when it was introduced in 1985, and had 32-bit registers and a 32-bit data bus (2^32 bits==4GB of physical RAM). It shipped at 16 MHz. (A better comparison would probably be the contemporaneous 68000 family vs. the x86 line.)

More broadly, Apple didn't have a lot of great options circa 1984-1985. The original Mac was slow, black and white only, didn't support hard drives, etc., but at least enjoyed a modern architecture. The Apple II was still selling well, and bankrolling Mac development, but was falling behind its x86-based rivals (yay 64KB bank switching!). So you keep the cash cow alive for a while longer with the IIgs until the Mac reaches critical mass.

Apple II enthusiasts still resent John Sculley & co (though Steve Jobs would probably have been more ruthless) for this betrayal. :)