All the other brands went along

i wouldnt discount the function of having four thunderbolt ports with equal capability, you can plug a charger into any of them and it's pretty common to see thunderbolt docks being used with any brand now if an abundance of ports is the goal. External SSD's can be hooked up with usb-c and most users don't need usb-A anymore. All that is really missing for the average user is HDMI in my opinion, and that requires a simple adapter if the first party dock is too expensive.

basically it's very practical for the target user,it's not lacking in function just because it's missing ports that most of its users wont care about

Too right. They wanted to show off the design of the Apple I so much, they didn't even put a case around it. It's all about the aesthetics with Woz.

not in this case. old laptops had WAY too many ports. and when was the last time you even put a disc in a laptop? I need 1 USB a and all the rest can be USB c and that's it. power, data, video, all USB c. the USB a is only for my convenience, I have an adapter. simple, thinner, better.

Oh really?

2024 16" macbook pro: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/121554

• Charging and Expansion
• SDXC card slot
• HDMI port
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• MagSafe 3 port
• Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
  • Charging
  • DisplayPort
  • Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
  • Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)

If you look at OP's picture, you'll notice:

magsafe power, ethernet, display, firewire, 2x usb, mic and headphone ports