Placed my order for Space Grey 13" middle processor, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, with AppleCare and a few cables, it's $3,840.00 (Australian $$$'s). This is challenging for most people (even those with the spare cash). So I decided to compare with a similarly spec'd updated Microsoft Surface Book, it was well over $4,000.00 (AUD).......to that helped me a bit.
Everyone things that Apple is more expensive, and whilst I agree it's hard to do an Apples to Apples comparison, I believe that the equivalent alternate notebooks in the market are at the same value point.
Replacing all my adaptors is a rather large pain (last count for my old 2011 MacBook Air 3 x VGA, 2 x HDMI, 2 x Ethernet, not to mention various USB cables).
One final point is my 2011 MacBook Air is really still going along super well (i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD), so the higher price up-front is more than balanced with the years of service you expect from a MacBook Air or Pro. This laptop will continue to serve in our house, likely until the magic smoke comes out in some way over the coming years).