The PITA is that I use RJ45 pretty much every day. It’s not just a matter of “oh there’s wifi everywhere”; 99% of wifis everywhere are not open, or are actually not connected to the networks I’m working on, or I need the physical connector to diagnose wire / networking issues; and the performance of wifi on Linux on refurbrished machines tends to be subpar and they tend to not allow for “developer mode” options (playing with your MAC, WPA supplanting, etc).

If Tesla, the actual Tesla, had given us technology instead of the thief Elon Edison, then perhaps we’d somehow have point-to-point wireless RJ45 that would function everywhere, and I wouldn’t need the connector.

Or just a little dongle with both of these ports which can be plugged in on any usb-c on any side?

Dongles break, slide off, cause disconnects, can cause internal damage to the connector if the cables you have to connect are heavy, etc…, I already have the bad experience of having to use a USB hub to attach storage.

When it comes to engineering, I’m of the opinion that built-in > bolt in.

As someone who daily drives a laptop for work and does field work on server facilities, finding a modern replacement that has both a RJ45 port and square USB (USB-A?) ports available on both sides, has been a pain in the hassle.

And I’m not even crying over the loss of VGA any longer. That one I can live without.