Just be a better shopper if the prices bother you. The problem with people is that they like to compare apple products to cheap plastic shyt they find on Amazon.
Want a cheaper tablet? Grab the Kindle Fire HD 10 and be prepared to tinker with it to get a decent Android experience. Samsung makes good tablets, but you are paying a high price on that end and at that point I'd just go with an iPad.
Don't want an iPhone? Well you have plenty of options there. Samsung phones come to mind, but LG makes some pretty nice flagships. One plus and of course the pixel phones.
Laptops are easy. Compare specs and then build quality. You can get a really good gaming laptop from ASUS, MSI and Acer for less than a MacBook Pro and WILL last a long time as long as you are not a complete dumbass with it. No it doesn't have to weigh 20lbs either.
Point is people have options. People choose apple because it's easy to understand, fast for the casuals, their ecosystem works well and looks pretty.