Is that the problem faced by MOST Air customers? You can't point to the exception and call it the rule. An Air is designed for the lowest common denominator customer, not people running Matlab.
The MacBook Air is a computer mostly used by students. Just check what type of computers people use in college, even on the more technical universities (there is one close where I live and i see many students their using MacBook Airs). And they will be likely using software like Matlab.
Regular people use PC's mostly in general (atleast that is what I notice), rather than a MacBook Air.