Okay, not 'any'. Let's say far more capable than the average laptop from 2012 would be currently at general tasks. I worked with plenty of business models from that era as our school was going through BSF at the time and had a full equipment refresh from 2011-2013.
I've never bought a laptop new so I don't have much experience with consumer models.
Obviously there's the issue of cost - the Mac was likely three to four times more expensive than most of those laptops originally. But then none of them had quad core i7 processors, so it's not just build quality but also spec that was better.
Fair enough. When I buy laptops, I tend to buy high-end top spec ones that aren't 'Business ones' and are still pretty respectable today.
Mac hardware actually tends to lag behind non-Mac hardware because, although it uses good stuff, it charges a lot, lot more for it.
Compare the specs on a top-end Apple Macbook Pro and look at the price. Then go to a site like Overclockers and find a similarly specc'd laptop and you'll be fairly astonished by the difference - plus usually the laptop is way, way faster than the Mac. But the reason why the Macs are good are because of the OS.
I might have doubts about the hardware, but the OS (When it's not being an obtuse knobend) is good because it's all 'joined up' (On Windows, I use WSL2 and Windows Apps that dont' always tally up)
The answer really is to just use Linux which is wonderful, but the Apps available on Mac and Windows just aren't available.
So it's all a question of swings and roundabouts. I tried playing the odd game for a laugh on the i9 Macbook pro I bought and it's hilariously slow. I use a couple of older Windows boxes I still have (for dev purposes mainly on my network) and both of those compare well to the Mac specs. They simply aren't games machines.
It seems a bit strange that you've got a Mac (great OS for what it is) and that's the only reason to have one and you've binned it