Many years ago, HP was actually pretty good even on their budget lines of the time. Then those got shitty to keep costs low, and it just creeped up from there until shitty cost cutting was evident throughout all their other lines up through premium business class laptops
Also, HP’s bullshit on other areas like Printing is what earned them the top spot
Dell suffers the same enshittification on their laptop lines that HP did, just a bit behind. I cannot tell you how many batteries turned into spicy pillows in just MONTHS after being opened even on their supposed premium business laptops
Lenovo used to be shit, but I’ve noticed they’ve stepped their game up the last few years while OTOH Asus is the opposite being good at first but now starting to show signs of enshittification.
Basically, brand loyalty is BS any brand can turn to shit at any time and any brand can go to being a diamond again (Except HP, they’ve become irredeemable in my eyes) and those business contracts to get bulk discounts serve no purpose other than to lock in IT departments to that specific brand instead of being able to be flexible when the times change