Tex - the point is
you differentiate by ADDing higher function on more expensive machines, not artificially crippling mid-level machines relative to the entire rest of the PC market. And worse, not giving your machines full support of the most basic software package shipped with every machine -- especially when that's the central differentiator.
Pro buyers are plenty willing to shell out for horsepower, and the fundamental differentiator between the MacBook and MBPs is found in horsepower. Not just CPU, but GPU. The MBs are capped with the Intel integrated graphics. Which is fine, reasonable, rational. The second major differentiator is screen real estate and pixel density. The MBs are rightfully capped on that too.
Given that Apple's big differentiator with the PC world for consumers is ... iLife, why would it elect under any circumstance to sell you a machine crippled to where it can't fully support iLife? That's silly. Just as silly as it was when they sold $1,200 machines with no CD-RW while touting iTunes and iLife as the big bragging points -- even while every single PC at anywhere near that pricepoint had CD-RW stock.
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