First Intel Mac, first iPhone, first Apple Watch… for that matter, second Mac ever, and, however you want to rank it, an Apple ][.
I don’t regret any of them (my mother paid for the early Apple and Mac, but I know she didn’t regret the either).
The first iPad was also very under powered and new iOS versions quickly made it unusable by how much they slowed it down.
The first retina Macbooks had problematic screens with pixels that died.
And those are just a few highlights. There are many, many more examples.
First Cinema Display 30". In my country of origin, at the time, the cost was comparable to a second hand good car. Only 5 displays were sold, 4 of them for a local telecommunication provider for their luxury offices. One for me.
The screen was unevenly lit and on white/gray background introduced a visible pink to blue shift. After several unsuccessful attempts for calibration with the Spider Pro 2, the local Apple authorized representative filled the forms for replacing the unit.
Thanks to AppleCare+ after 3 displays with the same problem, finally I had a luck and received the perfect display. Still using it in my art studio to this day.
What if they gave you a working product as one would expect at that cost? AppleCare+ is pointless.
If they gave you a defective product with no Applecare+? Tough luck?
You are also coming at this from the perspective of someone running a business, purchasing bulk items. Not that it is justified on Apple's part, but AppleCare+ would lead to less 'friction' from Apple as far as repairing defective units that are more likely at that number. Likewise, you could probably claim AppleCare+ as a business expense.
Don't get me wrong. I don't like it, but it helps. And I had also a good experience without it, once. Exchanged my iPad Pro 12" for backlight bleeding without any problem.
But as you sad, when you are buying 20 or 30 MacBook Pros for your company, it is considerably better to be sure that you will get extended damage coverage.
Where I am, you could return an Apple product whether you had AppleCare or not. I returned three 2009 iMacs before getting an OK one, never had AppleCare.
You might get “lucky” sometimes but generally insurance is sold at a profit, so if it’s something you can afford to self-insure (and it’s legal), you’re usually better off with that in the long run. AppleCare isn’t bad, though, IMO.