It does seem plausible people prefer the new MBA. But that doesn't mean they're embracing Ive's design ethos. The 13" MBP, with its Touchbar, lack of Magsafe, and tapered case edges, was designed under Ive, while the new MBA rejects all of those design elements. So the only thing you're left with is people preferring a newer design with a smaller form factor, at the expense of some throttling under sustained all-core load. Since most MBA purchasers don't put their computers through the latter, that makes sense.
But that doesn't mean that Mac purchasers generally are willing to give up performance for form factor. Most buyers of the prosumer AS machines (the 14" and 16" MBP's, and the Mac Studio), are happy with their anti-Ive emphasis on function over form.
In summary, I'd say Ive, even with his missteps (like the Butterfly Keyboard) was brilliant at designing the entry-level consumer machines, but his form-over-function emphasis worked poorly when applied to Apple's prosumer devices—and that most buyers of that level of machine are breathing a sigh of relief at his departure.
So butterfly keyboard was not an engineering disaster, but rather a Design Disaster? What?
Let the forum Blame Jony as much as you want, but the thing is quite a few may have some real thoughts to process, blaming a designer for all failures than engineers, designs are quite tested and ratified by the product management team, so if the PMT found those 2016 devices to be good, well, then, blame actual engineers, designs are tested and if they don't work well, the designs are reviewed, had Jony had obsession of thinness, we wouldn't have seen thicker iPhones since iPhone 8, a larger, quite modular Mac Pro 2019, and also thicker MBP like the ones in 2019 Oct, whose designs as per rumours were confirmed by 2019 Q1, and lastly many say that performance and function over form has increased since Jony left, well I am pretty sure those who bought the Mac Studios are happy with chips than ports, under Jony too we had return of ports on the Mac Pros, and yes Apple still has obsession of thinness, without Jony, the new MacBook Air for Example, without Fan is the thinnest Mac Ever made
Even during Steve era too, we had obsession of thinness, with most products being thinner than their predecessors and also with repetitive mentioning of how thinner the device has become to its predecessor. So that all being said, lastly I just want to say, let us not blame Jony for all such mistakes and blame the actual guys, and I am sure, we all may realise at one point or another that Jony was quite important for what Apple stood for, we are now seeing the loss of design at Apple, which is quite fundamental to Apple
