The first port I’d expect Apple to add, if they added any, wouldn’t be a USB port of limited use to people, but an SD card slot for loading photos (which is the most likely use of a USB port anyway).
I hate built-in slots for photos. I had a TV with a port for that once. 6 months late I bought a little point-and-shoot camera. By that time everything was shipping with the faster version of that card which, you guessed it, the TV wouldn't read.
And even IF that doesn't happen, my SLR and my Point-and-Shoot use different cards (not to mention my iPhone, which as someone else said, can't hook up to an iPad yet). So even with the BEST CASE, a built-in slot only serves 1/3 of my cameras.
So, in short, built-in card readers are only barely useful to begin with and it's likely they'll go obsolete years before the rest of the computer does.
Waste of space.
The simple fact is, and I agree with you (btw, why include me in the people who want USB on iPad ? I don't even want an iPad to begin with, much less one with USB ports) that USB isn't coming to iPad because Apple just doesn't want iPad to be a stand-alone Mac replacement. They very much want you to need to tether it to a desktop/laptop to make it functional.
Overall I agree, but I think it's less "
they don't want it to replace the Mac" and more "
they want you to find a new solution."
Flash drive? Use Dropbox.
USB Keyboard? Use Bluetooth
Web-cam? We'll build one in for you.
Now, I'm sure you can come up with even more examples that have no replacement. That's not the point. The point is that this is like removing the modem from the Macbooks a year or two ago. Yes, I'm sure that makes someone, somewhere, angry. But Apple's prepared to deal with that lost sale. Same thing here. They'll find you a new solution. And if they can't...ok, too bad for you.