I think you are confusing design with build quality. The design is amazing. it is completely new technology for a laptop design. There will be some growing pains with it. Poorly designed and executed is also an opinion. Most likely, the items you mentioned were placed in those positions for very specific reasons. Look at the internal construction. if there were ports on both sides the logic board would be much bigger. If the OD was in the front, the battery and HD would not be as easily accessible. Then you would be complaining that you couldn't change the HD easily. You see, you would always be complaining about something instead of just using the computer.
Build quality, I will agree, is a totally different animal. I think that when you have semi-skilled workers, who quite frankly turn over very often, (this is quite common in China), the quality for anyone is hard to maintain on a high level. Does that make it acceptable, absolutely not. But based on my experiences with other brands, Apple is not alone. The expectations are just higher due the the "premium" people see on the price points.
Apple's prices are higher than the perceived norm because we all keep buying at those prices. Its simple economics. They are charging what the market will bear.
I for one have had very few problems with Apple products going back to the original Apple II. I also could not stomach having to use a windows product on a regular basis regardless of what brand of machine it may be on.
