I recently got a Mac Mini M4 because my old Alienware laptop was dying and then some. My wife was profoundly annoyed by all the nagging messages on the Mac and I thought it was hilarious that, unlike the nags in Windows that look 'modern', the nags in MacOS are the 1999 version of the 1984 modal dialogs from the original mac.
After installing Firefox and uBlock Origin, she quit complaining -- she couldn't believe how bad the ads were when she browsed with Safari and I wasn't about to make her an Apple account so she could install extensions on Firefox. (At least Microsoft gives you the option of using your Microsoft account to log into Windows so you don't need to log in twice.)
I installed Steam on the Mac and even though I have only four games that work natively on Mac (Stray. Dome Keeper and Rome: Total War, and one more) they work really well.
As for cost I'd say the high-spec M4 mini cost about as much the high-spec gaming laptop cost though it didn't come with a screen. (Ironically, the 4K screen on the Alienware introduces about a frame of latency which drives me absolutely up the wall when I play multiplayer games, even the not-very-twitchy League of Legends; I couldn't win at LoL at all until I attached a cheap external monitor)
After installing Firefox and uBlock Origin, she quit complaining -- she couldn't believe how bad the ads were when she browsed with Safari and I wasn't about to make her an Apple account so she could install extensions on Firefox. (At least Microsoft gives you the option of using your Microsoft account to log into Windows so you don't need to log in twice.)
I installed Steam on the Mac and even though I have only four games that work natively on Mac (Stray. Dome Keeper and Rome: Total War, and one more) they work really well.
As for cost I'd say the high-spec M4 mini cost about as much the high-spec gaming laptop cost though it didn't come with a screen. (Ironically, the 4K screen on the Alienware introduces about a frame of latency which drives me absolutely up the wall when I play multiplayer games, even the not-very-twitchy League of Legends; I couldn't win at LoL at all until I attached a cheap external monitor)