Should it be the other way around? 95% of people who haven't thought about ethernet cables for the past year should have a bulky port on the laptop that eats into PCB + battery space

The assertion that something as basic as a functioning Ethernet port in a "professional" laptop - the high end model of which exceeds $6000 - constitutes a waste of PCB and battery space, is utter delusion. At that price they should throw in a Saks Fifth Avenue bag to carry your dongles.

I’d argue for the MBPro keeping the eth port (and even going latest gen, like 2.5 or 10Gb), and the Air not including it.

Professionals need all the stable connectivity they can get.

The same company has been selling a tiny 10Ge machine that can saturate this plus both TB ports without breaking a sweat. You'd think they could make a single dongle with 1/10th of that capacity.

There are collapsible ports that some laptop manufacturers include. Robustness might be a worry but I’m sure Apple would be able to engineer something suitable.

3Com was doing this[1] over 25 years ago stuffing a retractable RJ-45 into a PCMCIA card. The concept is not new. I'm sure if Apple ever did such a thing it would be lauded as pure genius, an invention so incredible we would not be worthy of it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XJACK

Wifi is still not on par with ethernet and probably wont be until wifi 7 is the norm. Even then 10gbps ethernet will likely be more common and still out perform wifi especially in urban areas of high interference

Wifi will become on par with ethernet when it would switch the media to copper or fiber optic.

Aren't closed ecosystems wonderful?

I was elated to hear that Apple is being forced to abandon Lightning on iPhones, and I'm normally not much for government meddling.