Lets see how that really works

Upgrades and patches are free - you can opt to have them pushed to your machine automatically
Compatibility issues are normal - certainly not as bad as the ones Mac users have experienced with Catalina and legacy software lately.
There is always the etc - but that is true for both platforms

So at the end of the day, currently, you are more likely to experience Catalina-based software incompatibility issues, OS-based security issues, and about the same amount of "etc" - I still think there is no clear advantage of a Mac over a PC, and the PC is cheaper.

Oh, I don't "like" building computers - I happen to be very good at matching software requirements to computer hardware so I built a business around it. One of the things I like about Xotic.com is that I spec what I want, and they build it just the way I like it. The other group I like a lot is Puget Systems - who specialize in custom machines for a host of high end applications. This way I don't have to build machines - and I can go out and take more pictures. That's the one thing that is pretty hard to do with Mac. You have few choices in that department. Oh, and you get to pay more for a machine that has more or less the same internals as the Windows counterparts. SMH . . .

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-performance-PC-Workstation-vs-Mac-Pro-2019-1716/

I'd put up a Puget Systems benchmark for Lightroom, but I can't due to software incompatibility specific to current version of MacOS.

Why do the Mac fans get so defensive and offended over facts - for the same $$ spent, you get more with a Windows machine, or for less $$$ you get the same performance as a Mac. If you are going to bring up compatibility issues, then you'll need to be specific. I have been building these things for years, and my 10 yr old machine still runs everything I through at it, though recently some Windows 10 - only software is causing me to update my system OS, so I am just about ready to buy a new laptop. I can neither afford nor justify a Mac given my needs and workflow. I use Qimage for printing, and SyncBack to manage my backup and archiving, and neither are available on the Mac platform.

As a consultant it was important for me to provide fact-based evaluations - thorough, unbiased, honest, and easily researched. I have no emotional attachment to either platform - for me it's all business. If there is a serious incompatibility issue, or malware issue, etc it usually comes out in the literature. But broad generalizations based on the state of computers 10 yrs ago are hardly worth considering in today's world, where there has been so much industry convergence that the only real differences are the Apple merchandising and "Uniform" that all their products share - you know, that "Apple" look, and the price tag.

I don't have to demonize Apple products to make Windows stuff look good. That is a really good approach to use to maintain credibility.

I support both platforms. The facts are what I posted. Value=Windows, Prestige=Mac. That is why Mac is more expensive.

I personally built over 3,000 engineering and graphics workstations for architectural design, animation, structural design and modeling, etc etc etc. Never once did I have a request for a Mac. The software that the engineers and architects were using did not run on the Mac platform. I also ran a video editing lab at Purchase College in NY, a fine arts 4 yr college. We had a Mac lab with 3 workstations, and a Windows lab with 8 workstations. Personally I preferred video editing on the Mac back then. Mac's Final Cut Pro is still my favorite platform. But Adobe Premiere ran better on Windows. The cost of each room was about the same.

I have been using a system I built for myself in 2011 - with carefully chosen components it is still holding it's own. You would never think that you were working on a 9 yr old system. I haven't ever experienced a virus on my computer, nor hardware failure. It is a myth that PCs experience more hardware failures, and it is also a myth that Mac OS is free of virus exploits. That may have been true when Mac was running Motorola CPUs, but not now that the are running Intel. The other thing is that often a Mac is compared to a "Best Buy Special" entry level or general purpose computer. The big joke on Mac users is that while Apple doesn't select the cheapest components, they don't select the best either. You will never see enterprise class drives, SSD or mechanical, liquid cooled cpus, etc on the desktop side, or until recently really nice drive and memory configurations on their laptops. I will take a custom built laptop over a Macbook Pro simply on price alone - I know the cost/performance is better on the Windows laptop.

I am happy you are as thrilled using your 10 yr old Mac as I am using my 10 yr old PC. BTW, my PC has an Intel i7-2600K cpu slightly overclocked to 4.5 ghz with liquid cooling, 32 gb ram, Nvidia Quadro 2000 video for 10 bit graphics on two displays, 1 TB SSD boot drive and 8 TB storage in a RAID 1+0 configuration (4 drives). The machine initially had an i5 and 16 gb ram, and smaller drives. It has proven 100% reliable over the past 10 yrs. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Just like you.

I tend to go the custom build route. Very few of the standard brands offer much in this area. With your budget, after you get done adding external drives, you won't be able to afford a Mac anything, unless you get a low end, entry level system. I have similar needs and habits (can't ever seem to find the delete key), though I need to support 2 external displays at my home office.

I am about to pull the trigger on this system for myself:

16.1" display
i7-9750H 6 core 12 thread
NVidia RTX2060 with 6 gb Vram
32 gb ram (user upgradeable to 64 gb)
1 TB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (boot drive)
1 TB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (second drive)
2 TB 2.5" SATA III SSD

Total price is $2317

A similarly configured 16" Macbook Pro would cost $4199. It would have 4 TB of storage, like the Windows machine, but it would be entirely on one drive, which is less desirable. For almost half the cost you get the same level of performance and storage, and you can stay within your budget.

Another way to look at this is what could you put together for the cost of this 16" Macbook Pro ($4200)

17.3" display 4K
i9-9750H 8 core 16 thread
NVidia RTX2070 with 8 gb Vram
32 gb ram (user upgradeable to 64 gb)
1 TB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (boot drive)
1 TB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (second drive)
4 TB 2.5" SATA III SSD (in Bay 1)
4 TB 2.5" SATA III SSD (in Bay 2)

Total price $4058. So, for the price of the Macbook Pro described above you can get a system with an 8 core, 16 thread CPU, a slightly larger display, and a whopping 10 TB of internal SSD storage. There is no economic or performance reason that could be used to justify an Apple purchase. But there are the emotional, status, aesthetic and other non-technical reasons that are perfectly valid for Mac fans, and are totally meaningless to people who are trying to get the most bang for their buck. I am not a fan of using external drives for everything. It makes the computer less portable.

Money is hard enough to come by these days - you can't go wrong with the Windows custom built system.

https://xoticpc.com/

I've been sending people to this custom integrator since 2012, and have had no complaints. My son spent a few $$$ on an engineering-class workstation to do 3D structural analysis and design, and to run his CNC routers for his design/fabrication business a couple of years ago and it is still doing fine - or was until the pandemic basically stopped his business in its tracks.