I mean to each their own in terms of your use case may vary based on the UI/UX of your choice. I can see a need for OSX if a big chunk of your workload is going to be in graphic design, front-end development, or some kind of management role where you're spending days looking at spreadsheets or word docs.
I'm also not defending Linux as a consumer OS, but as an OS for use in a work environment tuned purposely to maximize the efficiency of an employee working as a developer who is deploying to Linux from OSX. I'm often bewildered as to why I run into so many back-end developers who are deploying to Linux, yet using OSX for their daily driver.
I suppose the hardware issues that you cite. I've had the occasional hardware issue, maybe once every two or three years that takes a couple hours to track down and fix. My workflow doesn't really make use of pointing devices, and I've never owned a bluetooth device that I've needed to connect to a workstation, so I haven't come across those issues. Battery would be a horrid pain though.
> I'm often bewildered as to why I run into so many back-end developers who are deploying to Linux, yet using OSX for their daily driver.
It's very obvious: they use a personal machine for work only 8h a day and want their OS to be usable the other hours of the day and weekends. It's not that they necessarily prefer macOS for programming, but they prefer macOS for everything else they spend most of their time on. Or, alternatively, they have done so for so long they're more productive on macOS (admittedly a worse OS for programming) than Linux.
Just think of it like this: my demands from a development environment are much less strict than from a consumer OS. For developing all I need is a terminal and some programs, that's it. For a consumer OS all I need is what every other consumer needs: a functioning system 100% of the time with good usability.
It's much easier to run a VM than to constantly fix hardware issues or usability quirks that are out of your control as a user.
Your idea seems to make more sense when you use one for work and have a personal notebook for whatever else. Some people can't have that, or just don't want to. That was my original idea when getting a Linux notebook, but when I had to use it as a personal machine it became much less adequate.
I'm also not defending Linux as a consumer OS, but as an OS for use in a work environment tuned purposely to maximize the efficiency of an employee working as a developer who is deploying to Linux from OSX. I'm often bewildered as to why I run into so many back-end developers who are deploying to Linux, yet using OSX for their daily driver.
I suppose the hardware issues that you cite. I've had the occasional hardware issue, maybe once every two or three years that takes a couple hours to track down and fix. My workflow doesn't really make use of pointing devices, and I've never owned a bluetooth device that I've needed to connect to a workstation, so I haven't come across those issues. Battery would be a horrid pain though.