Ah sorry that makes things o right. I have MS in Comp Science worked on Windows Linux and OSX, wrote drivers and multicore programs, even those that have lockless rings spinning on CPU's with RT FIFO priority. Built about 20 computers and numerous servers, first being 9 years old.
Your experience is not to be downplayed, though it is mostly irrelevant here.
So lets take your points into considerations.
For a programmer like myself, this machine not being server but a tool that one will use every day, again I say there is no difference in i7 on Air vs MacProRetina in regular day usage, even for a programmer running XCode or one or two virtualized hosts.
I mean, benchmarks clearly show the 13" retina being drastically faster than the 13" Air, but if your uses are light, then yeah, you probably won't notice real-world differences.
Having said that the i7 in the macbook retina has more to do to support that retina screen. It is not going to hold a battery charge as good no mater what benchmarks say. I would be surprised that it lasted within 30% as long as MBA in the similar usage (say playing movie).
I never said the 13" retina had superior battery life to the 13" Air, the opposite has been clearly and plainly proven and marketed by Apple. All I said is that there are very few scenarios where one would go more than 9 CONTINUOUS HOURS WITHOUT A POWER ADAPTER. Similarly, few scenarios where the additional three hours WITHOUT A POWER ADAPTER would prove any more useful, especially for someone who is more likely to code at a desk than they are in the middle of nowhere. But whatevs. Again, I'm not knocking your preference be it arbitrary or not; it's just your logic that could use a little work.
There is big difference between i7 and i5 however, but that aside for regular user is not going to be a difference. Now those 64 bit benchmarks - heh...
If you are going to do that kind of utilization you are better of having 15inch with dedicated GPU.
What are you even talking about? Most Mac apps these days are for 64-bit Intel. 32-bit Intel OS X code is on the decline, as are apps that don't use more than one single core. Therefore multi-core 64-bit Intel is THE benchmark to give two craps about.
Again working on Air looks so much more natural than on MBPr. Not something to put the finger on, but it feels much more portable, ergonomic than 13 MBPr.
I am not saying that MBPr is not good to work on, just that MBA is more preferable.
Personal preference, neither knocking it nor agreeing with it.
You may not need an all day battery, but I do.
9-hour battery life is all-day. It's also a feat to go 12 hours of consistent computer use without being near a wall outlet.
It's getting late and this argument is getting lousy.
No, you just don't have a valid argument for things that are not obviously just personal preferences.
If the retina screen is not a deal breaker, everything else is better on MBA. There.
Again, personal preference, not the rule of thumb. Retina screens are obviously the future of displays as they are technically superior; it's only a matter of time. Good luck hanging onto the past. If the fate of the design elements of the non-retina MacBook Pro are any indication, Apple will not cater to you for much longer.
No it's not! The i7 CPU in the MBA is a low voltage CPU, the i7 in the MBP is a full power mobile CPU. So that's the reason why it's so much more expensive.
The rMBP 13" actually has a smaller footprint than the MBA although the MBA is thinner at its thinnest point thanks to the tapered design.
If you are happier with a MBA then great, but the rMBP is a better computer. This cannot be questioned.
I agree with everything you say, though it looks like the Haswell generation of 13" retina MacBook Pros actually use the same family of low-voltage processors that the Air uses (where the 15" still uses standard full-power notebook CPUs), albeit at 1.1-1.3GHz faster of a clock speed across the line. It does make a speed difference, even though the OP clearly doesn't see it.
2.96lbs versus 3.46lbs doesn't seem like much; .5lbs difference. Both aren't heavy, that's for sure. The fact that both are light-weight laptops is what makes that half pound difference especially pronounced. Put another way, the rMBP is 17% heavier than the MBA (when comparing the 13" models).
Also worth taking into consideration is the weight of the chargers. The MBA uses the smaller and lighter 45Watt charger; the rMBP uses the slightly heavier and larger 60Watt charger. On the topic of chargers, you'll be reaching for it slightly more often with the rMPB With the MBA, one can leave the charger at home and comfortably get 10 hours of browsing, typing, etc. The rMBP user is more likely to need a charger.
So while the difference is small, we're talking about small things in general. The difference is quite pronounced when you make it relative.
The weight difference between a 45-Watt MagSafe 2 adapter and a 60-Watt MagSafe 2 adapter is barely noticable. I need to actually look at what is written on the adapter to be able to tell the difference. Similarly, I don't know anyone that wouldn't be fine with the 13" rMBP's battery life. Again, it's hard to go 9 continuous hours of computer use per day and NOT be near a wall outlet.
