just a real bummer that they raised the prices so much
I suspect it can't be helped at this point. RAM is the new gold. Valve even had to increase the price for a 4 year old piece of hardware[1].
[1] https://tech-insider.org/ca/steam-deck-price-increase-2026/
I don't know if you're young, or new to this industry, or what, but take a look around - the prices went up across the board. It's not just Apple.
It definitely puts it out of the range of every day users but a non-insignificant proportion of people who use it for ai have become multi-millionaires because of ai. So there's definitely no shortage of people who have no problem paying those high prices.