Re: Selective deafness
If you are comparing bargain-basement consumer-grade crap to Apple then yes I agree with you on the build quality issues. Comparing it to a business-class laptop and that's a different story. Dell latitude and Lenovo Thinkpads are so popular with businesses because they are built really well and don't cost the earth.
As for Windows 10 data slurping you can for the most part disable this, and the bit that is left isn't much to worry about. I'd be more concerned with your choice of browser and your surfing habits!