That SPARCbook price was $21,000. Site doesn't say if that's inflation-adjusted for today's dollars, and internet being what it is today the top search links and Wikipedia reference links go back to this site as the source.
Still, you're advocating paying $20-40,000 for a laptop with the dual justification that "not expensive" is bad, and that 20+ years in the future someone can give a presentation on it to a usergroup interested in novelty value. That does not seem like a value for money proposition.
Can't find an original ad but looks like similar SPARCbooks were $7,500 in their day. You can still spec out apples and thinkpads to this price, so I think the critique is legitimate.
> Introduced in August 1995, the PowerBook 5300 series were the first PowerPC PowerBooks, ... The 100 MHz 5300c, with active matrix color, sold for $3,900 for the 8/500 configurration, and $4,700 for 16/750.[1]
> Announced in March 1998, ... The PowerBook G3 Series started at $2,299 for 233 MHz with no floppy drive and a 12" screen, and cost around $7,000 fully loaded.[2]
> If 2007 had a title, it might well be "Year of the Laptop." The US notebook market boomed in 2007, with laptop shipments rising 21 percent to a total of 31.6 million units. Desktops still outsold laptops in 2007, but the gap between the two has shrunk as desktop sales continue to decline.[3]
Laptop PCs started from $6000 range down to $2000 range over decades up to 2005 or so, not up from zero to there, at which point it established its position as the default form factor of personal computers. So if you go back in time they only gets expensive despite inflation.
Back when engineering software ran on Unix, exclusively, you had no choice but to use one of these. I remember the Mentor sales guy having one to demo the latest IC design software.
Still, you're advocating paying $20-40,000 for a laptop with the dual justification that "not expensive" is bad, and that 20+ years in the future someone can give a presentation on it to a usergroup interested in novelty value. That does not seem like a value for money proposition.