“I was reading an article where it compared computer costs and the Mac cost $2500 in mid 80s, or $6K today, which I think is four times today’s list price of $1500. Similar to PCs as well.”
This is likely a misunderstanding of how computer costs are treated in inflation statistics. The nominal cost hasn’t changed much (in my experience it’s gone up slightly in nominal terms when comparing the typical base level desktop Mac in 1990 and the base level MacBook in 2019 which is what most people buy).
Inflation statistics indicate huge declines in computer prices because they include hedonic price adjustments (increases in quality). Car prices have some of the same issues (though not to the same extent). See https://www.bls.gov/ppi/ppicomqa.htm
I can believe that mainframes were an expense in 1990 that isn’t incurred today. But was that typical for a LAC or just confined to research institutions (and potentially covered by government research grants)?