Apple is all about user experience, which may be why they limit things like this if the hardware isn’t truly up to it.
That's a pretty silly take, considering this thread is all about how the hardware was
actually truly "up to it", but Apple chose to restrict you from using that hardware to its fullest potential.
This isn't really all that new, either. Apple has been pulling the software-lock shenanigans since the early 2000's with the iBook and Powerbook G4 models. Both had external monitor support, but the iBook could only "mirror" the internal display. Lo and behold, someone discovered an EFI hack to enable display spanning on the iBook.
But you're right, Apple is all about "user experience". Only what that really means is that Apple is all about curating the user experience to segment the cheap bastards who buy the base model of a machine from the "real users" who opt for the more expensive version.
My crappy Dell work computer can technically use 2 external displays in addition to the internal, but one of them does weird flickering stuff no matter how they’re configured, and the fans are constantly going crazy.
Must be a particularly crappy Dell, then. My current setup (from which I'm posting this right now) is a Latitude 2-in-1 with two BenQ 2560x1440 monitors and one LG Dual-Up running 2560x2880. The LG and one BenQ are running off of the USB-C ports of the laptop, and the other BenQ is plugged into HDMI. I could, if I really wanted to, open the laptop and use its screen as a fourth monitor, if I so desired.
I've been using Dell laptops for my work computers for over 15 years now and have been running a triple monitor setup at home off of them for seven of those years. Two Latitudes and one Precision model over the past seven years have had no issue with running my monitors (though this is the first laptop to power the LG since it was bought less than a year ago - previously I had a third BenQ in its place).
I do agree with the fans though - they do run when I put any kind of load on this laptop (I'm usually running at least two VMware sessions, which can tax the CPU and RAM). It is intel afterall. To be honest, however, it isn't really that loud (the Precision was worse, but it was two upgrade cycles ago and was built to be more like a mobile workstation).
That’s not a very Apple-like experience
It was when Apple was still using Intel CPUs. Let's not pretend that Apple's thermal design of their pre-Mx machines weren't absolutely horrid when it came to managing thermals.
Instead, the new "Apple-like experience" with my home office setup would be two of my monitors working while the other one sits there collecting dust.