Right but...in the larger scheme of things the burden of setting one package aside until the other arrives seems awfully small.
I agree, setting a package aside isn’t a problem. The problems are:
1) Return windows - I would like to keep the option to return my Mac Studio/Display setup if for wherever reason it doesn’t meet my needs e.g. I suddenly come to my senses and realise a 24” iMac is all I need. If e.g. the monitor arrives 2wks before the Mac, I can’t then return the monitor because I’m outside the 14d return window. My Magic Keyboard & Mouse (ordered at the same time as the Mac & display) arrived 4 weeks ago, so if I do decide to return the Mac Studio/Display, I can’t now return the Magic Keyboard & Mouse.
2) Warranty - the Magic Keyboard & Mouse now only have 11 months of warranty left and I haven’t even used them. (The box says the Magic Keyboard is only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs - I assume this is just the touch ID, but I also want to keep the nice new keyboard for use with my nice new Mac.) It would be nice to have a full 12 months warranty for the whole system from the first day of use.
3) Cash flow - not too much of a problem for me, but Apple have some of my cash for bits of a system that I can’t use yet. I would rather keep my cash until I can have the whole system.
4) Deliveries - There isn’t always someone at home to receive the deliveries, so some effort is needed to manage this for each delivery. One delivery is three times less effort than three.
One added advantage is that someone who wants their order ASAP gets it bit earlier because I’m prepared to wait
I guess part of the problem is the separate Mac Studio/Display is replacing an all-in-one 27” iMac, so I can’t use the old Mac with the new display if it arrives early, or the old display with the new Mac if it arrives early.
A difference may be that Amazon are literally a warehousing company, with lots of things on shelves ready to go out. Whereas particularly for the New Hotness, Apple are almost certainly shipping product as they roll of the line. Introducing an option to aggregate orders means having to store the constituent pieces somewhere, until they can all go out - which costs money and introduces additional logistic challenges. They may not perceive the marginal benefit to a handful of customer to be worth the additional infrastructure and logistic design.
What I have in mind doesn’t need Apple to store e.g. the Mac whilst we all wait for the display to be made. It should be possible to sync delivery by managing the two order queues. For example, supply of item A is constrained with a short lead time, and item B constrained with a long lead time. Rather than ship item A as soon as it is ready, I’m given a place in the A queue that aligns with my place in the B queue. Alignment could be checked periodically and adjusted if e.g. A starts to become more constrained etc. Both A and B then ship at the appropriate time with the courier asked to deliver them at the same time (or they go to a distribution centre to be shipped together). An additional logistical challenge I agree, but not impossible.