I'm kinda surprised the 13-inch Pro still exists (especially in its current form) considering feature overlap with the largely superior M2 Air. It seems like now Apple has an opportunity to further reduce it's already beautifully concise computer lineup. So yeah, there's a reasonable thermal envelop and throttling argument in favor of the 13-inch Pro, and the battery life is better on the Pro, but for my money I'd rather have the Air, which compared to the Pro:
- Has a larger, better screen
- Has a MagSafe charger (in addition to two combination thunderbolt/USB-C ports, meaning that while charging you have two free peripheral ports, of particular interest to the OP)
- Weighs a little less
- Has a higher-resolution webcam
- LACKS a Touch Bar
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the M2 Pro has exactly the same body as the last Intel 13-inch Pro. My guess is that the 13-inch Pro was a particularly popular Apple Laptop option in its day, and there is still a huge stock of old shells, out of which Apple is still squeezing value. Or perhaps there is something about the momentum of the manufacturing process that makes it cost-advantageous for Apple to bang out new copies of old shell designs.
Further consider that Apple is still selling the old M1 Air (which makes use of the older Intel Air body) and that for both new M1 and M2 laptop releases Apple has made models with older bodies available first (with exception of the M2 Air release, during which Apple was still selling the same older-bodied M1 Air). Maybe it's easier to produce a stock of computers using the older bodies, so the old-bodied Apple Silicon machines have show up first. Maybe there's a marketing reason to release (presumably less exciting) older forms first.
