I would say most Apple products fall in the hands of those using them for web browsing and the occasional word processing (and maybe the same - but to a lesser extent - applies to Wintel laptops).
I agree that the maximum configurations of laptops are less than what I would like, but I think as SSDs get less expensive, their size will increase (as an option). The lack of larger SSDs in consumer devices is more a function of the cost to adding them, as opposed to consumer acceptance or desirability.
No matter how quickly you may be able to recover a lost system, it can be done even faster in a virtual setup. Lost the laptop, need to get the work done while waiting for a new device. Move the hyper V into a temporary device, use it there, and then migrate it onto the new device when available. I am planning on trying this setup in a work environment with a Surface Pro 3. I will use the when connecting to a certain workplace server, but the base of the laptop will be used everywhere else.
If you remote desktop into your work environment, then all the SSDs etc will need to be on your servers. You would also benefit from the faster connection of a 10G LAN to your servers from your workstation. Whether Intel makes money on the client side or the server side does not matter.
In a personal example for SSD on a workstation - faster boot, hibernate is usable, as it is also fast, CAD programs work better. Compiles with Visual studio are quicker (even smaller jobs - saving a few seconds here and there does make for a better experience).
An example on a server was when I replaced my drive that my backup software was using for its DB storage. The performance of listing file contents, deleting archives etc went up an order of magnitude.
