Apple don't make the LG Ultrafine Display. Apple offer many other third-party products through their stores, but it's the manufacturer's responsibility to support those.
> how am I supposed to rely on Apple to meet my needs if they are perfectly happy dropping products a business depends on?
Apple still make amazing 5120×2880, 10-bits-per-channel screens: The Retina iMacs. If your business depends on such screens, you'd get the iMacs, not the MacBooks, or get a MacBook with any of the many third-party 4K displays.
> none of the half-dozen developers/tech-oriented people I know who have switched to the latest laptops prefer them over the older ones.
Why?
> before listing complaints. The complaints range from the touch bar
Like? What complaints specifically?
> to performance being far worse than older models.
They have some of the fastest SSDs on the market [1], their batteries can go up to 18 hours [2], they have the fastest GPUs ever in a MacBook, and how many laptops do you know that have high-DPI Wide Color screens?
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> Are you not aware of the touch bar?
I use it daily, and it's better than the archaic row of limited and cryptic FN keys that it replaces, especially once you've tweaked it a little. [3]
FN Keys:
• 12
• Have to remember what each number does in each app
• Different numbers remain "fixed" for different functions in different operating systems (e.g. F1 for Help, Alt+F4 for Quit.)
• Not customizable
• Cannot give at-a-glance status without taking up main screen space
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Touch Bar:
• More than 12
• Not limited by physical space
• Context-sensitive and adaptive
• More types of controls than just buttons (e.g. sliders, color pickers)
• Customizable
• Can display at-a-glance status such as time, battery etc.
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As for other companies that offer high-end laptops, take a look at people's experience with Razer for example. [4]
All of the over-a-dozen developers/tech-oriented people that -I- know prefer the 2016 MBPs to everything else. They've also outsold all other competitors in just a single month. [5]
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/01/2016-macbook-pro-ssd/
[2] https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/13/macbook-pro-battery-issu...
[3] https://alexw.me/2017/01/what-if-you-could-customize-your-ne...