this comment has always existed behind every apple release, most especially anything vaguely pro-ish.

to answer your question : looking at the aftermarket availability of Apple's prior best and brightest : practically no one buys them.

"people here buy them" , well, 'here' is one of the most affluent groups of people in the world.

They're available as movie and television set pieces (undoubtedly disappearing into the home of someone close to the staff post-production), and for administrative/boss types that can slip the cost into a ledger somewhere that few will ever see.

It has been a hobby of mine every few years to check out the apple site and see how big I can option a machine. My record was when I was in high school years ago and was able to option some pro studio-ish apple desktop thing to like 61,000 usd out the door.

Movie set pieces, as a motivation for Apple making these high-end configs available? That makes no sense.

For one thing, you can’t tell from a movie what the specs are. A $999 Mac Studio looks exactly the same as a $20,000 one.

For another, Apple updates the industrial design on their products so rarely, a 6-year-old Mac, iMac or MacBook also looks nearly indistinguishable from a brand-new one.