Why would you pay mythical "thousands" for a Mac? I sure don't. You can have a very good iMac for under $1000 on Apple's refurbished store, which has the same warranty as a brand new iMac. If you already have a good monitor, you can get a Mac mini for approximately $500. For most people's uses a Mac mini will do just fine. You can use your existing PC keyboard and multi button mouse or buy Apple's keyboards and touch mouse to go with it for about $100 more. Done.
Had a lot of trouble with the mini. i have thought about the refurbished ones, just haven’t found a deal on one with a great processor. Since you have had good luck, maybe I will look again.. if I can find one with a great processor... maybe. My old mac laptop from 2009 is still running, slowly, for my youngest. Thanks for posting.