Firstly, it's not Apple's way. They favour vertical integration and premium-pricing.
Secondly, why have part of the pie when you can have the whole pie? i.e. instead of just acquiring Intel's customers, also acquire their customers, all the way to the end-consumer, gobbling up the margins at each step of the way.
> Secondly, why have part of the pie when you can have the whole pie?
This entails converting all Windows user into macOS users. This is not realistic, in my opinion.
In the end, the question should be what makes the most money: keeping Apple silicon exclusive to Apple (and thus selling more Apple devices) or selling Apple CPUs to competitors (and thus adding a new income stream).
I think option number two would make Apple more money, and therefore shareholders should prefer this approach.
How do you gather? I think it'd make sense for Apple to earn more money by acquiring Intel's customers.