I feel bad for their competitors. We need good competition in the long run but over the last few years it's made less and less sense to get something other than an Apple laptop for most use cases.

I don't. They're being weighed down by Windows and to a lesser extent, x86. If they want to excel in the market, make a change. Use what Valve is doing as an example.

Also, the MBA vs MBP lineup is different now. MBP was the default choice before even for students, so MacBooks sorta started at $1300. Now the MBA is decent, and the MBP is really only for pros who need extra power and features.