I had one of the early x86 models.
Competitive in price it was not, and osx wasn't as good as you think it was. Kernel panics were a daily thing, and segmentation faults of quicktime while watching videos.
Reproducing file formats like wmv or divx was a quest in finding and installing the correct codec.
Also overheating, because to make it pretty they didn't add vents for the air to flow.
I'm talking about pre-x86. I don't recall any kernel panics or segfaults when I used a G4 Power Mac back in the day; it was certainly more stable than the Windows 98 PC I was coming from.
The early x86 Macs (Core Solo, Core Duo CPU, etc) were pretty bad. I have one of the x86 Mac Minis from 2006 around somewhere.
I've been Thinking Different™ly from 68k->PPC->Intel->Silicon. The two greatest performance increases have been the two most recent CPU updates, in both raw and per-watt metrics.
The entry-level, basic-bitch M4 mini is incredible... the entire computer uses less than just a comparable-performing x86's GPU.
We're in a second golden age of hardware, so I can dream that maybe one day soon Mac OS will be amazing again.
(Despite the new hardware golden age, the emulation performance here is pretty close to unusable on an M1 with Safari, unfortunately.)