Today you learned that used Macs hold their value well! This works out well for you when buying new because if you spend a couple hundred bucks extra, you can anticipate getting it back when you sell it.
I'd rather save more money, by not spending that amount of money on such a machine in the first place. Also, I'm not sure how "halving in price" is "holding it's value well". Investing 1,000 to 4,000£, or more, in something that in a few years will be worth 500£, does not sound like a good deal to me.
Besides, that only works if you, as a mac owner, treat your machine well. From looking at second-hand macbooks, it's very difficult to find one where the screen isn't bent, or badly damaged, or where the battery (which is not easily user-servicable) actually holds a charge.
Personally I'm not even sure how you accidentally bend a laptop screen in the first place. All the thinkpads I've bought have been not only in fantastic condition, but almost every problem that presents itself (If any does, of course) is fixable for less than the price of a new machine.
I also believe I forgot to mention, that the older thinkpads have not only screen upgrades, but people in China producing motherboard upgrades? I could upgrade my $60 X200 to a recent-generation i7, with USB3 / USBC ports, fast graphics, etc. for even less than I could have bought that other Thinkpad with the same specifications, for.
Oh, and for the final dose of laptop superiority: Almost all thinkpads since before the X200 have keyboard drains. If I spill my drink on my laptop, my laptop still works.
For sure, I'd rather keep the money. But it makes comparisons a bit less straightforward, if you saved $200 on a laptop but could have gotten $300 more back on a Mac at the end, was it really cheaper?
I haven't kept track of Thinkpads (had a brief foray into Surface Pro land, then went back to an iPad + Mac for Apple's better stylus when they finally supported one), but I've been told the drains aren't a standard thing anymore? Some models have it, but Thinkpad doesn't list them in the specs so it's hard to even tell which.
