At least that is the reasoning. They can complain to their local Apple Store to make it work.
Most end users have no clue, and they don't enjoy researching, so they don't know they could get something better for less money.
No, as a pro, my reasoning is they are great for photo/video work, and even affordable compared to competitive solutions (I mean at the time, they don't make them anymore, but the 5K iMac screens are excellent).
I just don't understand scrimping on something you will spend all day staring at. Getting something "almost as good" for half the price is a terrible deal.
I have never used an Apple monitor, but I have used several other 4k monitors and they are great. My Dell monitor is just fraught with compatibility issues and needs special software to work with win 7. I use Ubuntu and it barely works there, my coworkers have to treat theirs like special snowflakes.
Why are you still using windows 7?
On Ubuntu the monitor needed much finagling to get working right, unlike my AOC or Asus 4k monitors which both worked when hotplugged using HDMI.
My coworkers, who aren't all devs, have more work to do in windows and they needed the special software.