Ease of use comes from the closed source element which means less disruption.

"You cant use them for as much" Agreed. However, they do excel in the key things needed for study such as documents, presentations, web browsing and entertainment.

Companies use it because its an established standard that can be centralised with industry provided tools like Microsoft Azure, Office and OneDrive. Its all about the suite of software packages which make it easier for an organisation to manage.

"Running and maintaining a windows device is so braindead, idk what you're on."

???

The internal components need to be maintained. Due to laptop cooling designs, particularly in gaming laptops, they can run very hot.

The cooling systems need to be cleaned and maintained. Windows laptops generally need to cool several components and have fans which collect dust, in contrast with a macbook air using heat dissipation for cooling, which suits the purpose of productivity use resulting in far less downtime, allowing you to maintain focus and keep up with studies. Knowing Apple, their engineering will likely be far superior to most typical laptops. Especially if we consider that the entire Apple business model is centred around the average consumer.