The old, antiquated VGA connector is only good for older projectors. Plus, when the notebook gets older, it is among the first things to corrode.
Is it such a bother to add an adaptor? Or a cable. Those can be found for cheap today.
I can understand that the Ethernet port can be more useful, but I have plugged an Anker adapter to the monitor in my office. I just leave it there. Or take it with me, if travelling.
I never had a female VGA connector fail. I wonder what you have to do to make that happen.
Apple's thunderbolt-ethernet dongles are from a mechanical point of view an extremely poor design. If you expect problems with a VGA connector, expect those dongles and the port on your MacBook to fail way earlier.
Don't get me wrong, it is perfectly fine if Apple offers modern connectors. It is just that some connectors, like VGA, RJ45, USB-A and 3.5mm jack are so universal that not offering them is just making lots of people suffer for no good reason.
And as for those connectors being bulky, just use the opportunity to add a larger battery. It's a MacBook Pro, it can use all the juice it gets.
I can't remember the last time I was presenting at a conference and they didn't have a Mini DisplayPort cable available. Macs are popular enough for presenting that it's a non-issue everywhere I've been.
Wait until you want to display a breakdown of a merger bid to a board of directors who each had to lock their cellphones in a box before entering the room. Sometimes Google hangouts isn't an option. Sometimes that physical wire is needed.
We're very close to a world where we only need to plug in the USB type-C connector and we'll get power, internet, and display all in one cable. To me that's the end-game.
Up until this moment I actually believed Android/ChromeOS was ahead of the curve with USB type-C. I think we'll reach that moment as soon as we have Type-C laptops from Apple and Google.
The DB15 adapter is insanely thick for a modern computing device. It should have died years ago, but unfortunately it's still required for most aging conference room video equipment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector
We wouldn't even have USB-A without Apple. PC manufacturers stuck with PS/2 keyboard connectors for another decade after Apple switched.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port
According to most, the rate of technology is accelerating. Unfortunately, we want to stick with the same ports forever.
Let's all move to USB-C, for example, and everyone else can buy an adapter.
https://www.amazon.com/Aukey-Adapter-Reversible-Supported-CB...
PC manufacturers still sell PCs with PS/2 keyboard connectors. Because once you lay out a thousand bucks for a KVM switch, you're in no hurry to throw it away. Because people still love those mechanical IBM keyboards. Because you can't plug a thumb drive into the keyboard port of a machine at a secure site. And PS/2 to USB converters are full of bugs.
Meanwhile PCs have had USB support since USB has been a standard. Apple "dropped" PS/2 because they never had it -- Macs used ADB. Adopting USB (from Intel et al) was a bid to stay relevant by becoming compatible with PC peripherals.
Dropping ADB (and VGA and RJ45 and so on) are nothing but Apple saving a buck at the expense of the people who still use those things. You can have the new thing without destroying the old thing.
OK. So every computer needs to have, at minimum, multiple USB ports, probably at least one type C USB port, a PS/2 port (really at least two PS/2 ports), a serial port, an ethernet jack, a CD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, a VGA port, a DVI port, probably an optical audio port, an HDMI port, a pair of audio ports for stereo out, an SD slot and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack.
After all, it's wrong to destroy the old things just because there are new things. So I'm sure you'll get busy right now starting up a company to make computers that come with all of these and they'll sell like hotcakes, right?
About the only thing you're going to have trouble finding is the floppy drive, and that's because they're legitimately defunct. A PS/2 keyboard is just as good as a USB one; a floppy disk on a new PC is a useless anachronism.
Also, the floppy drive can't be left out. Remember: we never drop an old thing just because there's a new thing!
All the time, VGA (and headphones jacks) just work. It is not the most brilliant solution, but it works.
I don't know the details, but some combinations, I think going from HDMI on a MacBook to DVI actually don't work. I guess due to HDCP getting in the way.
About adaptors, nice if you use the laptop only on your desktop. In the field I managed to break a thunderbolt to ethernet dongle and it also took out a thunderbolt port on the MacBook. It used to be that only a cheap RJ45 patch cable would get old. You toss it in the bin and get a new one. I guess that's progress.
For instance, the maximum resolution on my current Macbook is lower if I use HDMI than if I use Thunderbolt.