They are no black magic. ARM is simply better optimized for mobile devices and Apple being a walled garden with tightly controlled hardware and software, they had the ability to transition into ARM chis on laptops without much hassle. However ARM chips do suffer in performance and some other areas. That said, the rest of the gang is following up with this move. Won't be too long before they lose even that advantage.

Also, I wouldn't really call them a game changer. I understand what you meant by your statement, but as a laptop MacBooks are a really bad choice with almost zero repairability these days. From glued batteries, soldered memory to programmed chips which stop working if you move them to another board. All of this (and much more) combined with their repeated engineering failures with even simplest of things makes them extremely undesirable in my eyes. Problem is, people never realize there's a problem until warranty program runs out and devices start massively dying. Those that do survive are touted as "Apple quality", but millions of others remain forgotten.

You are contradicting yourself when you say you are willing to pay higher price to enhance your system. If you don't understand what you are paying how do you know you are upgrading. Everyone seems to be focusing on that monitor stand as an example of Apple = expensive, when in fact everything is more expensive for no other reason than to milk your loyalty and habits.

I also disagree with the whole differentiation between user and tech person. Of course there are people who care about numbers more than they should, but in general you should care about what you are buying. If you go to buy a washing machine you don't go and point finger and black and say I want this one. You check the amount of clothes it can take, you check if there's a program you need. Same with buying literally anything. Is it a smart TV or not, how big is it? Are these shoes water proof or not? Etc. You don't go on saying "as a walker and not a mountain climber I don't care about shoe specs". Of course you do. At least to a degree.

And let me tell you, as a user and not a tech person, 99% of your daily life problems is solved with literally any laptop, PC or phone out there right now. What you are looking for is style over substance. For something to look pretty and to be part of a group which has a habit of praising themselves for their choices. Problem is, you all live in a bubble now and think no other manufacturer can produce quality and looks at the same time. Which is wrong but distortion field is strong.

Want to prove me wrong? Next time you want to go buy a phone or a laptop or a car... just ask for random one. Since you don't care about specs, screen size shouldn't be the problem, nor storage space. Funny how not caring about specs but when buying a new device it's never the last years model.