Fair question. When it comes to professionals, there are large groups who don't even have to pay for it. The company gets it for them and then there is a 3-5 year refresh cycle. For instance when I joined my latest job, I received the highest spec M1 Max, but that's expected to last me without any upgrade needed for at least 3 years (it will last easily 5). Companies often prefer to buy high spec machines for developers, otherwise they give too much work to the IT team, replacing laptops all the time.

Then you have the professionals who appear to spend their own money, but in reality it's a business investment in which case a very large portion of the cost is tax-deductible. So they'd rather spend more and get a higher-spec machine than give that money away as tax.