The stupid thing is that they could change nothing about the laptop including the price and add almost nothing to the BOM cost to add 8gb more of RAM, still make a staggering profit and avoid this criticism altogether.

Just make the base model have 16gb ram. They could probably mark it up $150 too and nobody would bat an eye. It's already too expensive, just don't sell a stupid option.

It's like a base model Cadillac only having 3 seats. Yeah maybe a lot of people can get by with it but it's a Cadillac! Why is something inferior like that even an option?