I guess my point is that dongles and adapters seem to make things more complicated. Not easier. Plus it seems to be a money grab.
Lol, I will NEVER understand this bizarre & paranoia laden manner of thinking...
I mean, am I really missing something???! Did Tim break out a sheet showing the enormous amount of "dongle income" that the company made, during the last shareholder meeting? Wtf money is there to be made in selling dongles??? Lol. We know that the ENTIRE Mac line makes a little teeny wedge of the income pie for Apple, with the vast majority of the money makers being iDevices. It would stand to reason that only a teeny tiny wedge of that teeny tiny wedge of profits would be attributable to "dongle sales". Lol, they probably make more off Apple Music subscriptions & App sales in a day than they do off of dongle sales in a year.
You can be as mad as you want to over the direction of their mobile hardware. You could say: "I think they choose form over function", you could say: "for that price it should have new connectors AND old connectors", or even: "this doesn't represent my idea of a Pro machine". Any one of those opinions are sensical & valid.
However, it is absolutely LUDICROUS to posit that this company has made a single decision w/ regards to their Mac lineup, as a "money grab" (I can't even type that, keeping a straight face), from dongle sales.
Please.
I don't think you even vaguely fathom the enormity of cash Apple makes.
You, basically attempting to portray them as so desperate for cash that they are shaking couch cushions, in search of nickels, is silly.
To put it further is perspective: consider that it would take the sales of 150 dongles at $20 each to equal the $3000 price of a single high-end MacBook Pro. I know that they may have a higher markup.... but they also do NOT have a halo effect. Nobody is marching out to buy an AppleTV because they love a dongle. That is a one time sale. Apple likely wouldn't give up a MacBook sale for 1500 dongle sales, much less 150. They would much rather sell a MacBook... then they can make the ecosystem compelling, and get the user to purchase products that further lock them into it.
Dongles do NOT do that. They are a side-effect of technological advances (and Apple's lust for thin devices with less "legacy" ports)... a necessary evil.
TLDR;
There is NO conspiracy by Apple to rob you of your ports, solely to sell you dongles. That makes negative sense.