Another way to look at the issue -- as follows.
In 1983, I paid about $3,000 for a transportable with the 8088 CPU.
In 1988, I paid about $3,000 for an NEC 386.
In 1993, I paid about $3,500 for a Gateway 486.
On 1995, I bought another Gateway Pentium for about $3,000.
After that, I was building them myself. The outlays usually averaged around $1,500. According to the logic I followed through 2002, I was "saving" money.
Now I can buy a mainstream desktop for maybe $600. I'm more likely to build my own for between $1,400 and $2,000. But I build my own because I know what my $600 would buy for a Dell, Gateway, etc.etc.
Then I turn around and add my own chosen risks to the larger purchase. For that, I get pretty much what someone might spend $3,000 or $4,000 for a "flagship" with the "X" processor.
At this point, though, I mostly do it because "I can," and because I belong to the Anandtech forums. Go figure . . .