Users like you need to stop assuming it is as easy as hooking up things. It is definitely not. Also users like you need to stop assuming that each computer comes with 1289347692467823946 amount of Thunderbolt ports. If you get 2 you are lucky! Most computers will only have 1 and thus there is no other option but to daisy chain.
Another problem is the technical limitations with Thunderbolt and DisplayPort. A Thunderbolt device is only able to use 1 DisplayPort stream, meaning that it can only drive 1 DisplayPort display. If you put more ports on it and run that over Thunderbolt you only have a choice what kind of display connection you want to use. Only 1 of the connections will work, the others won't. Basically, if you want multiple non-Thunderbolt displays buy the new Mac Pro (it has 6 Thunderbolt ports).
The Caldigit dock is a very nice one because it has both hdmi and Thunderbolt on it. There is another brand which sports a similar layout on their dock. That way you can hook up a display and another Thunderbolt device such as the Thunderbolt Display (dual, triple display support!). I would have liked a mini DisplayPort or normal DisplayPort connector too because most modern displays come with them. However, the best thing would have been to have more Thunderbolt display options or the ability to hook up more displays. Unfortunately the problem is the infancy of the technology. It is still too new for such options. We'll see them in the future when bandwidth is enough for multiple DisplayPort streams (and thus multiple displays/higher resolution displays) and Thunderbolt is more popular.
