There's a difference between lower end (none of these computers were even low end, just "on the lower end of Apple's offerings") and mass market. None of those devices are mass market, they're just the "non-pro" items.
The Classic, for example, was $999, which until the 2000s I believe was Apple's cheapest Mac. This was in 1990. It was still an upscale item, just slightly more accessable price wise than their Macs had been before. And its spec was basically identical to the Mac Plus, launched 5 years earlier.
To put it in perspective, including inflation, it cost four times the MacBook Neo, roughly $2,400 in today's money to $600. Given the PC architecture was dominant at that point, it was a niche platform with a high price tag that only a handful of people would spend money on. Oddly, students seemed to be the main market, and that was in part because Apple offered a sizable discount for students, while universities were one of the few places that supported Macs and PCs on an equal footing.
Commodore, Sinclair, Atari, Amstrad, Radio Shack, et al, were the companies doing the mass market stuff. Apple had a niche, and built upon that niche, but they were never interested in dominating the market the same way those five companies were. Which is fine. The Neo seems, however, to be a change from that.