as this puts it on the path of a race to the bottom
That indeed is one of the major problems in the broader IT industry, and in particular the part of the industry that deals with home users. What you end up with is today's marketplace where there is "choice"... but most of it is not worth touching with the proverbial bargepole.
Unfortunately most home users (and indeed many businesses) do not realise that a low price point does not necessarily equate to value.
Apple should have further seized upon Microsoft's bad marketting of itself
They could perhaps be doing a better job of getting the message across that by buying Mac you're not necessarily choosing between Mac or Windows.... Windows runs perfectly well on a Mac either natively (Bootcamp) or virtualised (VMWare or Parallels).
There are other areas they should highlight too.