Hey, the Zephyrus Duo was meaningful innovation from a company that has enough different lines that having one more model that is different simply provides options, and interesting options at that!
No/minimal tactile feedback when typing is a no-go for a lot of laptop users who might otherwise look at that ASUS laptop. There is also a huge difference between innovating to improve the status quo versus innovating for the sake of change. That ASUS laptop falls squarely into the latter category.
It would not hurt Apple to add some of those options as added models, while keeping the current ones. They do that with other products - HomePod anyone? The MacBooks don't get that treatment. In fact, the numbers of differing models have declined. No 12" MacBook, for example.
There's only two versions of the HomePod - HomePod and HomePod Mini. Of those, only the Mini comes in more than two colorways. There would also be a massive cost to Apple in terms of having to have separate toolings for different cases if they were to adopt some of the "options" you and others keep touting.
The bright colors of the translucent IMacs have been reduced to barely different pastels. The MBA line is the closest Apple gets to consumer or student laptops. There is a real need to expand back into non-business markets.
iPhone, iPad, HomePod, AppleTV, iMac, Mac Mini already target non-business markets. Not sure how much room for expansion there would even be.
With regard to the MacBooks themselves, the notch really should be replaced by an under-display camera, users should have at least the option for a touch-screen, and the current ladder for ram and storage should , at the very least, be updated into the 2020's - the system ram is on the chip, for heavens' sake. Does it cost Apple or TSMC one mil more to make a processor with 16GB or 24GB than it does to make one with 8GB?
As others have pointed out, there is currently no way to add FaceID to a Mac without increasing the thickness of the display. Touchscreens suck for a desktop OS, which is what so many people are overlooking in this thread. Microsoft screw themselves over in this regard when they released Windows 8 and attempted to create a touch-first UI in a keyboard/mouse world. Then as PC manufacturers started adopting touchscreens, Microsoft went the other way and kept Windows 10 (and now 11) as traditional UI interfaces. If I want a touchscreen experience, I have my iPad Pro and my iPhone. But when I'm using either my Mac or my Gaming PC, a touchscreen is useless.
For most computer users (i.e, those NOT on sites like this one or a PC equivalent), 8GB of RAM is still more then enough memory for their usage patterns (email, web browsing, streaming video). The RAM is not in the actual processor itself, but on the die that houses the processor, which is why Mx variants are referred to as SoCs rather than CPUs. It does cost more to add RAM to any system because you are then either a) increasing the density of the RAM chips used, or b) adding additional RAM onto the die.
Look at the picture again. That touchpad can be turned into a numeric keypad with a simple software switch. It does have some lighting that is not in the MacBook to make that work, but a model with that could be a separate model with a higher cost.
Personally, I would like to bring back the logo too, but that's just cosmetics, although I do like space black.,
Again, Apple would need to design, build, and pay for a completely separate tooling for a case which would support those changes. The logic board would also likely need to be changed in order to supply both power and signal to any such touch panels.
