If I get a new non mac laptop I max out the warranties and accidental damage. Top service level. Then consider that real OG price. Without those extras you have a brick-in-waiting.
You can also repair them yourself, so most people just wait until business update their inventory and you can get a cheap Dell/Thinkpad from ebay for a few hundred. I have a T480s, 24GB of Ram and a 8th Gen i7 processor that I picked up for £300. Granted the laptop is old now, but it runs all my dev software well.
The only issue is that I also installed it on my 16GB ThinkPad and the desktop experience has a lot of rough edges.
If you are using a nvidia card it might be worth checking if you are using Wayland or X11, Nvidia and X11 typically work better.
Got the entire thing replaced in that time due to issues plus lots of micro fixes. Pays off when you get a lemon!
Having someone come to you is huge. Sending a laptop back for 6 weeks because of default warranty is a PITA and you need to source another laptop and then get it set up. As well as backup data, delete, restore etc.
For an apples to Apples comparison you should add AppleCare, since the accidental damage cover is in the price I mentioned.