Totally not denigrating. Let's rephrase.
"[Macbook Pro] nearly double the CPU performance of [Macbook Air]"
"[Macbook Pro] delivers up to 1.8 times the CPU performance and double the graphics performance of [Macbook Air]"
"The [15"‑inch] screen offers [whatever] percent more display area than that of [MacBook Air]."
"Since [Macbook Pro] has 2.5 million more pixels than [Macbook Air]..."
"Despite having 78 percent more display area than [Macbook Air], [Macbook Pro] feels reassuringly solid in the hand."
"With 1.8 times the CPU performance of [Macbook Air], the [Broadwell / Skylake / whatever] chip delivers incredible speed and responsiveness."
etc. etc. and people will still buy the MacBook Air because it is thinner, lighter and they don't need so much power.
Seriously, I think you are reading way too much into it.
"[Macbook Pro] nearly double the CPU performance of [Macbook Air]"
"[Macbook Pro] delivers up to 1.8 times the CPU performance and double the graphics performance of [Macbook Air]"
"The [15"‑inch] screen offers [whatever] percent more display area than that of [MacBook Air]."
"Since [Macbook Pro] has 2.5 million more pixels than [Macbook Air]..."
"Despite having 78 percent more display area than [Macbook Air], [Macbook Pro] feels reassuringly solid in the hand."
"With 1.8 times the CPU performance of [Macbook Air], the [Broadwell / Skylake / whatever] chip delivers incredible speed and responsiveness."
etc. etc. and people will still buy the MacBook Air because it is thinner, lighter and they don't need so much power.
Seriously, I think you are reading way too much into it.
Go back and read my original post in this thread. You don't call those quotes denigrating? It's one thing to characterize a product as being the next great step in technology within a product family. It's quite another to say how poor the last version of a product was in favor of the new version, which is exactly what Apple does on their website. They could have done this a lot better and had a much more effective positioning of the products if they hadn't done that. To me, it looks like they're saying that the Air line is gone, and who cares how poor it was anyway since we now have the Pro to replace it. What's poor is their marketing.