I would challenge if the size of the machine or responsiveness of the cloud is superior to local. Most people are not compiling Rust all day, but refreshing JavaScript. Which is to not even bring up the cost difference to rent or own a beefy piece of hardware. 64 gigs of ram is nothing for a local machine, but comes at a cloud premium.
I do think there are some real wins in ensuring development environments are consistent and versioned. Knowing you can pick up the exact version used to develop the project without dedicated effort is attractive.
> Most developers are issued laptops, and a 64GB Macbook costs over $3000.
This is unfortunatley a nonsensical argument.
As a company, you are employing a developer to write code. Both the company and the developer are happy when they are at their most productive. And to that extent, a $3,000 laptop is a perfectly reasonable "tool of the trade". Also don't forget companies can lease laptops if they don't have the cash floating around.
Its the same thing in other sectors.
For example, in Finance. A Bloomberg terminal comes in at $30,000 a year. But if you are, for example, a bond trader putting in multiple 6,7 or 8 figure orders on the market every day, then its no secret that Bloomberg has the monopoly on bond data and as a bond trader you absolutely need access to one as the tool of your trade.
In addition, following COVID, most sensible companies have embraced WFH. And so what the company saves on office space they can spend on other things such as better laptops for developers.
I do think there are some real wins in ensuring development environments are consistent and versioned. Knowing you can pick up the exact version used to develop the project without dedicated effort is attractive.