RAM is really cheap when you're not buying it from Apple.
I'm in South Africa, with spotty electricity. I need a laptop that can sustain work for 4-6h without charge without spending an extra arm. Anything non-Apple that does this competes on the top end range, not entry level.
Cheaping out on hardware here just means I need to buy bigger backup batteries, so either way I need to spend a ton of money if I really want to avoid Apple that much.