> I mean let's be honest, how many of us are road warriors that need every single type of connectivity known to exist?
Road warrior? It also meant you could grab it and go to the conference room and not have to take anything else with you, or go back to your desk for something. Packing for a business trip? Maybe you need to throw the power brick in the bag. That's all. Every single type? It had, what, five, including the rather niche Thunderbolt ports? Those are what should have become USB-C ports, as that change would have been 100% an improvement. Keep the rest, including USB-A, which might finally not be the most useful USB port to have in, oh, 2030 or so, if trends continue. Should be right about the time USB-C is being replaced ("Can you believe anyone ever thought that cable situation was OK? LOL.")
> Having a single port type on your device simplifies one half of the equation.
I don't think it's been most people's experience that having only USB-C makes their device simpler to use with a broad range of peripherals, even ~5 years after Apple went all-in on it.
At home I have a CalDigit docking station. One cable to my laptop, and I get power, video to a second monitor, digital audio connection to a DAC for audiophile quality headphones, SD card reader if I really need it and wired ethernet. The laptop still has 3 open USB-C ports. How is it not beautiful that a single cable takes care of all of that. Sure, we've had docking stations forever but they weren't single cable, they looked like cash registers you have to literally sit your laptop in to get the same level of connectivity.
When I'm traveling I have a few cables for various scenarios and adapters. USB-C to HDMI for video, also works for my iPad so it serves two purposes. I don't use SD-cards on the road so this isn't a problem for me but a USB or USB-C or whatever to SD-card reader isn't bulky enough to gripe about for traveling.
At work conference rooms can simply provide the needed connectors so when I disconnect from my desk and end up in a conference room I still have the connectivity I need.
I definitely agree that USB-C makes a great connector for workstation-type docking situations, if you're getting to pick all the hardware for that purpose (which is what I've done, too).
> USB-C to HDMI for video, also works for my iPad so it serves two purposes.
I get why they didn't do it at first (lower-end models exist in part to use up parts from previous higher-end models, so you can't just change them all on day one) but it's crazy to me that they're still shipping iOS devices of any kind with Lightning ports. The dongle thing would have been less annoying if I could at least use the same dongles on all my (new) Apple devices, iOS and MacOS alike. As it is, only my 4th-gen iPad Pro has it. [edit] And man, is it so frustrating that they've almost achieved a situation where you can travel with one brick and one cable to provide power for your laptop and phone and a tablet... but no, they kept putting out new Lightning devices for years.
Road warrior? It also meant you could grab it and go to the conference room and not have to take anything else with you, or go back to your desk for something. Packing for a business trip? Maybe you need to throw the power brick in the bag. That's all. Every single type? It had, what, five, including the rather niche Thunderbolt ports? Those are what should have become USB-C ports, as that change would have been 100% an improvement. Keep the rest, including USB-A, which might finally not be the most useful USB port to have in, oh, 2030 or so, if trends continue. Should be right about the time USB-C is being replaced ("Can you believe anyone ever thought that cable situation was OK? LOL.")
> Having a single port type on your device simplifies one half of the equation.
I don't think it's been most people's experience that having only USB-C makes their device simpler to use with a broad range of peripherals, even ~5 years after Apple went all-in on it.