It's the difference between riding a hand-tuned motorcycle versus a car. The latter is low maintenance, always works, etc. but ask a biker, he'd say how passionate he's in maintaining his beast and how well it performs, etc. a car is no comparison to it.
Now how many bikes do you see as opposed to cars? The premium would always be lesser, only for those who want it and are willing to sweat for it.
So which is Linux in your comparison? I think many users, especially developers or "power users", feel things just work on Linux compared to more frequent twiddling required on macOS / Windows.
Now how many bikes do you see as opposed to cars? The premium would always be lesser, only for those who want it and are willing to sweat for it.