I don’t see the problem. Type-C ports can replace all those ports. If you want more ports, buy a dock.
And that becomes annoying if you constantly need more devices connected than what the Mac offers, and constantly have bring the dock.
In the past that was a non-issue. I can see why people would be annoyed by changes like that.
I have one dock at home, one dock at work. The docks stay connected to the peripherals and I just have to plug in one cable into the laptop to connect everything. I much prefere that over having to plug in 3-4 different cables in the past.
Right ?
My m1 MacBook is my first after a lifetime of thinkpads and dells etc.
For about a week, I thought I was short a few ports. Then I got a £20 dongle that takes 1 Port, gives me : 4 usb A, 1 USB C, all the card slots, HDMI and Ethernet.
You can plug anything into it. Life has never been easier.
And this picture doesn’t show the more recent models with the mag lock power, hdmi, and sd card reader.
Type c ports are the best. I connect my monitor through one and it has a type ports on it for a wired keyboard and speakers.
I have one of the more recent models. When I sit down at my desk, I just plug it into a Thunderbolt dock anyway, through a single port. All those extra ports just sit unused, despite having a USB-A keyboard and mouse, Ethernet jack, and 4k monitor at that desk. Plus the dongle provides power to the laptop.
I do use the SD reader from time to time, though. I used to have an external reader that was a bit unwieldy on the laptop, but it was also a requirement from when I was shooting pictures on a CompactFlash, which has never had a built in reader on any laptop.