Apple's value is absolutely for their software... as compared to Windows. (And as compared to Linux, for people who don't care about technology and for whom any risk of ever facing a terminal prompt is a non-starter.)
Agreed. In the creative space there is no equal. Macs have provided consistency and stability from the 90s.
Not when comparing classical Mac OS to Windows 9X/NT, which is why they were into trouble during the 1990's.