Very few laptops from PC manufacturers include ethernet ports these days - not sure why people are bitching about Apple not including one.
...because we still need them for fast and reliable network connections? Just gave up on the WiFi at work because it kept dropping out. At home, well, the latest WiFi tech is faster than gigabit ethernet...
in ideal conditions that won't happen outside a lab. However, most of us gave up moaning about that 5 years ago... and at least when the 2012 rMBP dropped ethernet it added an extra TB and HDMI c.f. the old MBP so you had more places to stick the dongle.
HDMI? Maybe. I got used to Apple's inclusion of the mDP port, so I always carried a couple of adapters (HDMI, VGA) in my laptop bag anyway
I'd be happy with a dedicated mDP port, which would accept the cables and dongles I already have, as long as you don't have to waste one of your 4 data ports by plugging in a display....
When you only make a couple of models of laptops, some of them need to work for "some users". Pretty sure that if I rummaged through the thicket of different models on Dell/Lenovo's website or tried a couple of smaller OEMs I could find a PC that still has USB-A ports.
Thing is, if a laptop has a connector that you don't need, that's much less of a problem than
not having a connector that you
do need.
I just got an external ssd drive in a usb-c enclosure. 400+ mb/s.
...which would still do 400+ MB/s plugged into a USB 3 type A port (and probably came with the USB-A cable in the box). OK, so you could have sprung for
one of the USB 3.1gen2 models that are now emerging and got 540 MB/s (you'd definitely maybe notice the difference with a synthetic benchmark but don't expect twice as fast)
if it was plugged directly into a 3.1g2 port on the laptop (most hubs and docks only do 3.1g1) but then 3.1g2 doesn't need USB-C connectors: quite a few PC motherboards offer 3.1g2 USB-A ports.
My monitors hook up with display port to usb-c wires.
...needlessly occupying a valuable USB/Thunderbolt port and (incidentally) limiting the connection to DP1.2a even if your GPU can support DP1.4 (hopefully any future Macs will have the new Thunderbolt controllers which at least fix that). Also see multiple threads from people who've had trouble with getting USB-C to DP cables to work - they're not just simple cables that wire the USB C port to the correct pins on the DP port.
USB-C doesn't really offer anything that couldn't be done with existing interfaces. Its "party trick" is combining several unrelated functions (power, display, high-speed data) into one connector, which may be an asset on a phone or tablet that can only physically accommodate one port, but is a ruddy nuisance on a full-sized laptop.
E.g. the number of TB3 and USB3.1g2 ports - and, hence, full-function USB-C ports - is constrained by the availability of PCIe lanes. That shouldn't affect display ports, power sockets or even slower USB connectors. Plugging in a regular display shouldn't "use up" a potential USB 3.1g2 or TB3 port. Of course, Apple could have added a couple of extra "basic" USB-C ports with no TB3 or 3.1g2... or maybe 3.1g2 but no DP... or maybe DP and USB2.0... or.... Ok, right, that's why they wouldn't do that.
E.g. with high-frequency 4k displays and 5k displays becoming the norm, and 8k coming soon, the bandwidth used by displays is increasing dramatically, so sharing display data and other high-speed data on a single cable is becoming less practical. The new TB controller with DP1.4 support might halp a bit - when hubs and docks have caught up.
E.g. magsafe was a great idea for
power cables - laptops mostly don't care if the power cable was pulled, and its power cables that get trailed over the floor in meetings etc. - its a
stupid idea for connecting multiple storage arrays where pulling the plug has consequences - and using a tiny plug with no retention clips that falls out of its socket with a hard stare is pretty stupid for such applications, too.
E.g. if they'd made DisplayPort Alt Mode so it worked with simple pin-to-pin USB-C-to-DP cables (like the "legacy MiniDP mode" in TB1/2) that would have been better, but it doesn't, and some cable makers have clearly done it wrong.
E.g. you now have the choice of "wasting" one of your high-speed data ports/external display connections by plugging in a charger - or needing a dock/dongle just to plug in a charger (I'm particularly thinking of the 12" MacBook and non-TouchBar MBP here with only 1 or 2 USB-C ports, respectively).
