You would even be in a better situation if Apple just included all the max hw and limited it via software so you could upgrade at a later point. Not that this IMO would be an improvement in general and not something I want to see happen on desktops.
Personal income has risen (nominal terms) by 65% since then [0].
As a portion of our income the entry level macbook of 2008 would be the equivalent of $2970. Instead, it's $999. The resale value seems excellent. The battery life of 20 hours, means the battery life will be acceptable for many years to come. The thing is ridiculously fast compared to today's everyday needs and will likely continue to be so for many years.
In short, as a consumer product this thing is absolutely excellent value and should have an extensive lifetime. Not having the ability to upgrade isn't as big an issue as it used to be.
For pro devices, there's a different calculus, because by definition professional usage tends to try to approach the limits of the hardware and so the ability to upgrade every few years is useful. Still, here too the value proposition is quite strong allowing for good resale value upon a full-replacement upgrade. And as pro users tend to use their computer for professional use, losing a bit of money on necessary full-replacement upgrades isn't as big a deal either. The monthly cost of a $3k macbook pro that gets sold & fully replaced every 4 years, is something like $40. If that powers most of your productivity that earns you a $60k a year salary (let alone 300k a year), shaving off $5 or $10 a month because of upgrade options isn't really a big deal. And I don't really see anyone else providing laptop upgrades + this value/performance ratio as the M1...
US: $1,299.
My country: $1840.
But Apple could succeed.
1. Can they match the number of PCI-E lanes?
2. How will they scale up the CPU and GPU to satisfy extreme workloads? Will we see gargantuan Apple Silicon chips or will it be a multi-chip solution?
3. Will Apple compromise RAM performance in order to give us DIMM slots, or will there be some clever trick to combine ultra-fast soldered RAM with regular-fast slotted RAM?
4. Will AMD GPUs be available for acceleration? Will they be available for 3D rendering and driving a monitor?
5. What will become of the Afterburner card? Will it be abandoned, will it be the key to how Apple makes the Mac Pro a performance powerhouse?