[emmjay_]

Yes, it's a deal breaker. I started at a large technical organisation over a decade ago and was well entrenched in using a Mac laptop. But in the support team, the default laptop was a Windows laptop. "Oh, only solution architects and so on are entitled to Mac laptops". But they allowed me to bring my own device.

So I brought my own laptop, had it re-imaged and I became the most productive employee not only in the local team but also the global team in terms of support tickets and resolution of issues. I could do tasks so much more efficiently - for me - on a Mac than in Windows.

12 months later the policy changed and support engineers could choose.

I guess the difference is I have enough experience to know that using a certain device, my productivity will be much higher than struggling in with a non optimal operating system.

Tenure also plays a part. When you're starting out as an intern or a junior associate, "you get what you get and you don't get upset" and have to make do with whatever the standard is. As a staff engineer, you can throw your weight around a bit more. :)