Why get a Studio when I could get a MBP?

[mcnallym]

A few hundred dollars aside, is there any reason to get a Studio when I could walk around with one in a backpack?

None whatsoever if you have a requirement to move your machine around,

Question is why would you buy ANY desktop machine when have a requirement to use on the move.

Different machines for different use cases.

 

[Chancha]

You also lose a lot of I/O - one less TB4 port, 2 less USB 3.2 ports, 2 less USB-A ports, no 10Gb Ethernet - which would cost several hundred more to add via a dock and still leave you with less aggregate TB4 bandwidth. (As an aside: there are very few docks that even offer 10Gb ethernet, one such being OWC's and which is about $400).

The built-in I/O alone is worth like 200-500 dollars in the form of docks or dedicated adaptors, and will almost never be as stable and clutter free. I own an Akitio TB3 Dock Pro with the 10GbE (it is just the OWC OEM), while its 10GbE is nice to have but it doesn't sustain the same performance as my stand-alone CalDigit Connect 10G "dongles" we also use.