So a useful MBA would come with 16GB,1TB and then you’re at the 14MBP base price already.
That’s only because you picked a 1TB config for comparison with the base 512 GB 14" MBP model which is not apples-to-apples at all (I don’t think someone who actually needs a 1TB drive would be comparing laptops like this). If you picked 512 GB (the same as the base config for 14MBP), the MBA is still $300 USD cheaper, and you get a larger screen, lighter computer, and arguably better battery life. All of those factors are non-trivial and may matter more to a consumer. And some people may decide they don’t need the 512 GB SSD or 16 GB RAM anyway depending on their use case.
But Apple has always been pretty annoyingly devious in pricing like this. It’s always a couple hundred USD increase for the next thing and then there is another couple hundred USD better option but if you keep adding it up you soon end up spending $1000 more…
That’s only because you picked a 1TB config for comparison with the base 512 GB 14" MBP model which is not apples-to-apples at all (I don’t think someone who actually needs a 1TB drive would be comparing laptops like this). If you picked 512 GB (the same as the base config for 14MBP), the MBA is still $300 USD cheaper, and you get a larger screen, lighter computer, and arguably better battery life. All of those factors are non-trivial and may matter more to a consumer. And some people may decide they don’t need the 512 GB SSD or 16 GB RAM anyway depending on their use case.
But Apple has always been pretty annoyingly devious in pricing like this. It’s always a couple hundred USD increase for the next thing and then there is another couple hundred USD better option but if you keep adding it up you soon end up spending $1000 more…