When I bought it though, Macs were shipping with lower resolutions than 1080p. And not long after the Macbooks went retina, I bought a laptop with a 4k screen - which again the Macbooks don't match.

My point is that PCs have offered high end specs at affordable (but above average) price points even before Macs had them. And the fact that many PC laptops still offer low res screens point to price being the deciding factor which moves the PC industry forward, not Apple.