I don't think it's evil corporate forces. They wanted a "budget" one with lower specs and realised they could reduce the price further by removing the Windows license.
You're probably right. I didn't mean evil corporate forces. I will certainly concede that I used the wrong term. I was earnestly curious what the justification was. I should've said "business justification" or some such, given the (reasonable) interpretation of what I actually said.
I doubt it's actually that much of the price tag.