It happened during what seemed like many years ago. I was knee deep in the original Mac OS platform, and not only upgraded the OS as soon as it came available, but I would buy new gear every year or two. For a time, before my son left home to seek his fortune, I had two desktop Macs, plus a notebook, known then as the PowerBook.
While not the cheapest approach by a long shot, it seemed the reasoned approach for my work situation. Each model upgrade was fairly substantial in the scheme of things, and I got paid to write articles and books about technology. So having the newest Mac was an important part of my work.
At least then.
When Apple switched to Intel CPUs in 2006, there were vast improvements in performance for the first few years. Then, as Intel confronted more and more difficulties boosting number crunching, not so much. It’s one reason among many for ditching Intel and adopting Apple Silicon.