$399 is still about 2x the cost of my phone, and a little under 1/2 the price of a laptop.
Not every developer works for FAANG . Some jobs rely heavily on in person work. And not everyone can drive. If you're making effectively minimum wage, $99 is a big deal.
Especially when Apple doesn't really seem to offer that much of anything aside from privacy(and mdns support) Android is great now, and iOS is way too locked down.
I'm not sure why that 60% uses Apple, but as far as I can tell it's mostly 5 overlapping types.
The rich, people in a Mac dominated career, those who want to look rich, those who care much more about privacy than an average person, and people who sometimes think the world would be better if computers didn't exist.
Could it possibly be that people see it as a better product?
60% of the US population isn’t “rich”. Even when I was selling cell phones back in 1996 at Radio Shack, the unsubsidized price of a cell phone was $300.
How much of a “status” is it to have something that 60% of the population has?
Again, if you can afford a developer setup, $99/year is not a showstopper.