Yeah, shopping for non-Apple laptops is basically a big game of “choose your caveats”. That’s fine if you only need one particular quality of the laptop in question to be good, but I think most people are best served by well-roundedness.
Your chances at getting something somewhat well rounded improve if you get up into MacBook price ranges, but even in that range there are a lot of machines with weirdly lackluster aspects.
Laptop manufacturers are absolutely terrible in this aspect. They flood the market with confusing models so they can push expensive, overpriced models around and keep minimal stock so sales are often at full price.
If you need a good laptop, you need to look towards the professional line. Not too professional ("workstation" laptops) but also not too amateurish (the cheaper laptops seemingly aimed at small business).
Thinkpad and similar product lines often deliver excellent value, especially in bulk, as long as you don't go for their bottom-of-the-barrel configurations.
Your chances at getting something somewhat well rounded improve if you get up into MacBook price ranges, but even in that range there are a lot of machines with weirdly lackluster aspects.