First of all, there's a lot to the price of Macs, and if you compare like for like specs and construction quality, the prices aren't terribly out of line. Look at the Dell XPS and Lenovo Thinkpad T series as examples, although the Thinkpad in particular has a leg up in how customizable it is. Similarly, the Mac Pro is a workstation-class machine, and the price isn't crazy for that quality system. It's probably just the most visible workstation to consumers, which is why the price seems nuts, and admittedly the people who actually need that level of system is a tiny portion of total computer sales.
With a Mac, you're not JUST buying the hardware, but buying into the ecosystem. With the M1 Macs, you're going a step beyond and getting a premium ARM powered computer with its associated benefits(insane performance/watt, cool temperatures, and crazy battery life on portables) but without getting a seriously handicapped system(Chromebook) or poor software support(Surface).
I don't disagree, though, that Apple should be making 16gb standard and not forcing so much swap. It's a $200 upcharge on an otherwise comparable system. I'd have paid it ahead of time, despite reviews to the contrary, were in not for the fact that for several reasons(namely a big pile of gift cards) I needed to buy this from Best Buy to make it happen and the 16gb option isn't available from them.
And yes, every single time I wake my computer from sleep, I beg for more RAM as the useage goes crazy and I have to wait for it to swap out. It's no improvement from my 2012 MBP(with 16gb) in that regard, and that's saying something considering that quite literally everything about the system is faster, including the swap speed.
You keep trotting out this "average American family" trope. I'd go one step further and say that in 2021, many folks who need to do email, web browsing, and Facebook are better served by an iPad or other tablet, possibly with a keyboard.
In 2021, folks buying a computer most likely need something beyond web browsing, or at least are getting heavy in their browsing habits, word processing, and the like(even a lot of the documents I type would likely take me 2x as long on a tablet given the number of special characters and things that Macs make easy to add). Still, though, maybe we can accept it that folks won't miss what they never had(16gb). Still, though, even when I'm not pushing my computer, I can definitely see RAM related slow-downs. I guarantee you everyone sees them, they just may not recognize what they are and 80% of the time you're trucking along fine.
Still, though,
@OVERKILL and I are reporting going over 8gb with web browsing. You threw out my datapoint by saying I was using a browser no one uses. Overkill gave you data from a browser that quite literally has over 60% of the desktop market, so that one is a hard one to toss out.
(BTW, I'm going to try Opera or Vivaldi and see how they do since so many sites are designed to render properly in Chrome/Chromium browsers and I refuse to put Chrome on this computer).
To be honest at this point, you're sounding like the worst kind of Apple apologist, and the kind who in a lot of ways nearly killed the brand in the 90s and 2000s. Read through my comments in this thread. I don't think anyone can doubt my Mac user credentials based on what I've said in this thread and my history of comments here. I'm 100% immersed in the Mac ecosystem, but that doesn't mean I think Apple is flawless in their design decisions.