A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... on Dell executive meeting.
Executive: - We need to beat Apple and make XPS a better laptop!
Engineering: - But we can't make a better laptop while we're stuck with Intel CPUs.
Exec: - OK, fine, at least match them!
Marketing: - We already designed booklets and competitive price, just a bit higher than Apple's, so we could slash it on the 2nd day after release and show that the laptop is on sale!
Engineering: - We can have the same specs on paper, but if we plop all components together we'll need a case twice larger than the old XPS. Or we need to cut something.
Chief of Design: - But we created a newer case already!
Engineering: - Let me see. %^@#%* WHAT? THIS?
Exec: - Yes! We like it. It's like Apple, only better: see that SD card slot? Marketing: It's going to be our main selling point and killer feature! Apple will quake in its boots!
Engineering: - What about performance?! What about cooling? What about compatibility?
Exec: - Enough of that nonsense. Just fit in the specs we need. Marketing will do the rest.
... some time later ...
Engineering: - OK, there you are.
Dell XPS 7500 - newest processors on paper, still slower than MBP16.
Same fingerprint-magnet palm rest. Newer, more expensive CPUs, that are still not a match for Ryzen. Speakers and webcam still sucks. Battery life worse even than old XPS. No USB-A ports. No HDMI. Massive power brick. Newer graphics card, which will probably perform the same as old, but we've got to show we're innovating. But we've got SD card and Wifi-6 (who cares that no one has wifi6 routers and if the internet behind the router is still slow even for wifi5?) Oh, and the price is higher than the previous model, just as you asked.
Exec: - See? Was that hard? let's push them to the market!!!