Remember the IBM PCjr? Now that was deliberately crippled.

They sold those things with a monitor for about $1000. It wasn't really a bad deal at the time, although you'd need to buy software like Lotus 1-2-3 on a cartridge not unlike a C64. The non-geeks might have been happy with it.

It was a terrible deal for computer stores because it brought in a completely different set of customers who'd expect the same quality of service.