What makes no sense is the current status of the laptop market.

There's some really good laptops out there that's about $500 mark.
And they come with 1080p screens, Celeron/Core i3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.

If you were to bump up to a Core i5, which the price difference would be <$50... you are in fact charged an extra $200. And say you want to jump to a touchscreen, which is <$5, you are charged at least $100. Then you want a modern 8GB RAM, costs <$20, you are charged another $150. What about the storage to 256GB SSD, costs <$100, you are charged $200. And if you were to go beyond 1080p, the panel's cost is $50, you are charged $400.

If you add these up, you get a price increase from the $500+ mark to the $2,000 mark.

I currently have one of the first Ultrabooks by Toshiba, its 4 years old, and got it for $1,200.
It has 4GB/128GB which is the equivalent of today's 8GB/256GB. The sharpest screen at the time was 1080p, but I instead got the 768p instead due to price and battery life trade-offs. The better screen required a ~$300 mark up, which is a "livable ripoff".

I mean imagine the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 (8GB, 256GB). Now imagine it had a Core i5 instead. It would traditionally cost AU $1,550. But no, its got the slower (and cheaper) Core M and is on sale for AU $2,100. The prices have gone up by $500 !

I also compared this to the MacBook Pro Retina 13"... and it has the proper processor, but lacks a touchscreen and tablet mode, and its comparatively costs AU$2,100 (which is the price point its always been at).

The Dell XPS 13...?
Similar specs. Can't convert into a tablet. Costs $2,300.