Ask who?
In the vast majority of cases, you as a single (potential) customer have zero impact on any commercial mass-produced product.
You can either buy it as it is, or not buy it.
If enough people don't buy something after a change, the manufacturer is likely to do something different - whether that something fixes what you didn't like will depend on how many things they changed.
It's not about expecting a cash grab, it's about understanding that this is 'standard' for most Macs now, and most existing/potential customers customers accept the trade-off that they don't feel the need to alter their approach for most lines.
We could theorise about Apple's true intentions all day, and still not know for sure.
Why they do it is also somewhat meaningless to the end result. They are not doing it, that's just a fact. If you are happy with that, buy the machine. If you're not, don't. If you feel strongly about it, email Tim Cook and tell him. You might get a response.
Expecting them to do something different because you think it makes sense, and then expecting strangers on a forum to know why apple didn't do what you think they should have, is not going to get you a result.