I am not interested in hearing anything with which you think to "educate" me. You are the sort of person Reagan described.
"The trouble with our opponents is not that they are ignorant... it's that they know so much which isn't so."
Computers back then were expensive, partly because the RAM chips were expensive. A bank of 16K RAM went for about $500 or more.
Bullsh*t. My recollection is that the Apple II used 4116 DRAM chips, and they didn't cost any where's near that. I also recall that in 1978 I was upgrading the memory of my own home built computer by using 2114 1024x4 Static ram chips, (I was 16, and had built my own computer out of parts) and they were something around $8.00 each, which would bring the cost of 16k worth to $256.00.
Dram was even cheaper and had higher capacity. I could probably look up the cost of these chips because I used to read them advertised in Popular Electronics back in the 1970s, and the entire catalog of those issues are available on line.
I find MK4116 drams listed for $27.50 from Quest electronics in the July 1978 issue. That brings 16K of ram to $220.00, and that's buying at hobbyist prices of onesies and twosies. I'm sure Apple could have worked a better price. Maybe as much as half.
If you wanted a PC that offered a lot of bang for the buck, it was the Apple II
It was the best thing available at the time. Steve Wozniak did a great job.
I stand by my quote about computers being expensive back then. Your recollection is flawed. I have receipts from the 1970s (I'm a packrat). My Apple II with 4K was $1200. 16K RAM banks (set of 8) did indeed go for $500 in late 1977. As you know, memory prices dropped and capacity increased every 18 months or so mirroring Moore's Law. By early 1979, 16K RAM banks had dropped to $250. I bought a set and have a receipt. By the way, the cost of producing chips was so expensive that many had gold in them. My Apple II chips have gold plated caps. So you don't know sh*t.