I would say that, strangely enough, the Federal Aviation Administration is to blame for the 16GB RAM limit. I posted an explanation why here hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12841293
High res screens require more power to run, and more power to render for... which means you could also blame the FAA for Apple not using high res screens... except Apple does use high resolution screens.
So the situation is not one of forced compromise so much as Apple having different priorities from its users... which is where we thought we were before you brought up the FAA.