It sounds like you are not part of Apples target audience, Water.
I'm happy to pay for legit usability. I don't upgrade my computers. I have bought Macs for myself for the last decade, and bought Macs for others longer than that. I'm typing this on a Mac. How am I not part of "Apple's target audience"? Not ignorant enough?
You don't like their prices or their design choices. Ok. No worries. Do what you like.
Up to this point I've been complaining because iMacs fail to meet my personal needs and the needs of many others, and also because Apple offers no adequate alternative to the iMac that would cover these needs. But I'll go further than that and argue that the stock iMac models sacrifice usability and have a bad balance of components for almost everyone. The computer as a whole is still a reasonable choice for many, but these particular choices are
bad design, period.
The ergonomics are one obvious failure. There's just one axis of adjustment, whereas every professional-level display I have ever used has had at least two, most have had three, and many have had pivot functionality on top of that. I could somewhat excuse this if the iMac was set at a good height to begin with, but it's not. Apple eliminating VESA mounting in the previous iMac model prevented the user fixing the ergonomics after the fact with an expensive display arm or aftermarket foot. Now the ergonomics of every iMac sold are not just terrible but also unfixable.
On the component side, Apple shovels money into CPUs even though the majority of users would never notice a difference to a slightly slower and cheaper CPU, while neglecting SSDs which would benefit practically every single user. And what they do with GPUs is just stupid. Either you are good with a very basic GPU, or you want a fast one, or you want a very fast one. Apple offers a bunch of mediocre mobile GPUs, indistinguishable for the average user while simultaneously being unnecessarily expensive. And at the high end of their range, they offer two nearly indistinguishable, absurdly expensive mobile GPUs that get smoked by mid-range parts intended for actual desktops.