Yes, it is quite funny and eyeroll-worthy that thousands of different people on an internet forum have differing opinions on differing topics, thereby making your strawmen and broad brushes more difficult to employ.
For the record, I didn't post in the HDMI thread (didn't even look at it, don't care, don't ever use display output when I'm not at work). But I will say that your strawman is not only a strawman, it's also a poor argument. Having one type of port but not another when there is an adapter to solve the problem doesn't really mean anything, except that you have to spend money on the adapter (and pay enough to get one that isn't crap). Having extra features that necessitate added complexity system-wide for something that most of your users won't need or want is an entirely different sort of tradeoff; it's actively obstructive from an interface perspective.
Three points.
First, the multitasking in Android is in no way obstructive to ease of use or to the interface. This is because it's entirely transparent to the user. A user who understands what's going on can use it to his advantage, while a user who knows nothing about multitasking can use the phone in the same way an iPhone user would and will never notice the difference. "It just works," and it works beautifully.
Second, I wasn't trying to set up a straw man. I actually would agree with you that there are different users with different opinions and that they can conflict, agree, etc. etc. My point was somewhat related to this. Basically, I was just saying that the argument "it's not something most people will use, so it's not important" is not a good one, and as evidence pointing out people making the
same argument the
other way about a different issue. Sure, there are differences of opinion, but the point is that "not all people will use it so it's not better" is not a good argument against it.
Now, it may be if your other point held - that it was a usability trade off, but it's not.
And this leads into my third point: requiring an adaptor in order to use what has become an industry standard interface is a usability issue. As has been pointed out in the other thread, adaptors get lost, the get forgotten, they are an extra cost, they take up extra carrying space, and so on. Of course, I don't think all of these things are a big deal (they take up a few inches of space in a bag - not a big deal In my opinion), but some of themare. If you are trying to give a presentation before a client or a classroom and there is only a VGA or and HDMI port on the projector - as is about 95% likely - and suddenly you find you've lost or forgotten your adaptor - major usability problem!
