So... yes, but, see, while I am sure a lot of people will buy the new MB, what I personally find curious this time is this.

At the days of this clever Lenovo commercial making fun of the MacBook Air, the point was that >yes<, the Air is thinner, but to achieve that you give up a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRWHOmWdqrY

So, if a thinner, lighter laptop was paramount to you, the Air would indeed bring a benefit. I understood what the Air point was and why it had been designed that way. (That simply did not appeal to me,but that is a different story).

Today, it seems to me that an additional USB-C port would only bring benefits, as far as I can tell. Even stylistically, IMO.

Hence my surprise at the new MB design.

Again, unless there's some technical constraints I am not aware of.

To rephrase this: What's the trade off here making them drop that one extra USB-C port today? If no technical trade off is there, then it's as if Apple decided to push a trend out of pure principle. Which is possible but I'd say unwise as that may cost Apple a bit on sales.