The Air wasn't a replacement of the Pro. It was a new device, an ultra portable.
It didn't become popular until they added a second USB port and SD card reader, added a higher resolution screen, fixed the battery life issues, fixed the horribly slow performance, and reduced the price big-time.
- When they dropped the matte screen option
- When they dropped the 17-inch screen size
- When they dropped the Express Card slot
- When they dropped the optical "super drive"
- When they dropped Ethernet and Firewire
- When they made the battery non-removable
- When they made the display Retina
Many of these complaints were driven by legitimate concerns at the time (for example first-gen Retina machines really did struggle sometimes). Ultimately Apple saw significant sales growth, even among pros, and I don't see many calls these days to reverse those decisions.[1]
[1] This thread will probably now be inundated with calls to reverse those decisions.
This time, they do not have a single laptop with competitive specs. This time, they do not have a single laptop that has enough horsepower to be good upgrade for a lot of professionals. The new graphic card is average at best and there's only 16GB ram.
There's actually only one decision from your list I'd love to reverse. I liked the 17 inch macbook pro and I'd love to have one again... I have a macbook for when I need portability, my macbook pro is my work machine and just needs to go from my desk to my client's office.
It's fine to criticize Apple for that (plenty have), but to me it seems weird to single out the newest model for something that has characterized the line for years.
I expect the 32GB option will appear with the next Intel architecture. They undoubtedly engineered the case for that point in time and will just suffer the complaints until they get there. The case is not something they can change from year to year; the logic board is.
In the meantime it will be interesting to see what happens when people actually try the new machines.
Each of these lacks did impact my life, in the way of significant, but manageable, annoyances. The lack of optical drive meant my partner and I couldn't watch DVDs on it. The lack of Ethernet meant that transferring any significant amount of data off of it was a pain in the butt. And I went through periods of eye strain as a result of the screen.
Each of these was a serious annoyance that bothered me. But I put up with it, and was even considering getting a new Macbook Pro as my next machine, because the rest of the experience was great. Now, I'm definitely not going to be getting a new Macbook Pro, because the most recent changes cross over the line from significant, but manageable, annoyances in to the realm of major hindrances.
The second Air was a genuinely good machine, and that's when it became really popular.