It's not entirely an argument against USB 3.0 via Thunderbolt. While USB 3.0 may be able to deliver 5 Gbps, a hard drive attached to it can't. And the video signal goes in one direction only, while Thunderbolt has 10 Gbps in each direction, so reading from USB 3.0 would be at full speed, while writing might not be. You could probably attach two hard drives via USB 3.0 and they would be substantially faster than connected through USB 2.0.
USB 3.0 via Thunderbolt is not a problem. It's USB 3.0 plus all the other stuff in the ATD over a single 1st gen TB channel.
Although USB is incredibly popular for mass storage devices, these only account for a small percentage of all devices shipped. I'm not sure about the percentage of people who prefer to connect their USB mass storage devices to their displays, but I'm guessing Apple wasn't providing those USB ports on the ATD with primarily mass storage in mind.
All my drive enclosures have FireWire 800 interfaces, so I already enjoy transfer speeds that are routinely 2-3x faster than USB 2.0. Under the right conditions, a USB 3.0 enclosure with a single HDD can achieve double the transfer rates of FW 800, but most of the time the performance advantage is much less, and if you have multiple devices connected to a single USB 3.0 host controller, the advantage can swing back in favor of FW 800.
USB 3.0's big advantage, besides being inexpensive, is with flash based media and not HDDs. While it may be a corner case, a single current generation SSD can max out a USB 3.0 controller at 325-370 MB/s of sustained throughput. I stand by the point that a single USB 3.0 port could definitely degrade the performance of the other devices in the ATD that are all sharing a single Thunderbolt channel.
Can you even imagine the reaction if the first Apple product to ship with USB 3.0 was a display and not a Mac? Seriously, did anyone think that was in the cards? Besides, the silicon and drivers for USB 3.0 are just barely maturing to the point where you would choose to include them as anything more than a checklist feature.
And purposely bottlenecking to 480Mbps is a better solution than a partial USB 3.0? I don't think so. And it's Apple's fault for combining MDP with Thunderbolt.
It's Apple's fault for creating and shipping the most capable I/O interface in the history of consumer electronics, and a truly one-of-a-kind display/docking station solution based on it... Have you or anyone else developed an I/O interface with more potential than Thunderbolt? Can you produce a more elegant display solution than the ATD? Why haven't you or anyone else brought this to market yet? Apple produces a landmark product, and people bitch about what features Apple didn't give them this time around. It's not Apple's fault that you can't produce what you want yourself and depend on them to design your toys.
Only two of the five are for Windows. I have one PC and use it mostly for gaming (2nd monitor on the PC is for my driving controller rig) and video compression. 3 of the 5 are for Macs. None use glass. They're all calibrated. NO reflection problems. I don't believe any are IPS (not needed here for consumer use).
Yeah, I'm beginning to think that high quality matte displays only exist sans glass, and that the design aesthetic and added durability of the seamless glass front is what is dictating glossy for Apple. Not just the fact that it annoys a lot of people.