Concerning the price I don't think it is a strong argument. I have never been a mac user, but I have friends who had quite old macs that were still performant enough after 8 years for running recent software. They paid more, but it lasted more.

Also for me spending time on a computer _is_ my job, so I don't mind spending some money on this for having good and professional material. I just bought a Dell Precision 5520 — 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM extendable to 32GB, UHD touchscreen, 8-10h battery lifetime, professional series, linux-compatiable http://dell.com/developer — that cost me at least as much as the equivalent by Apple I guess. But with such laptop I can be productive and I'm probably fine for years to come. It is worth investing in your professional tools IMHO.