All you say was kinda true for the magsafe ones, I recently saw the adapter that comes with a new macbook air:
- no little clip anymore
- no long cable anymore
- not the smallest Watt-for-Watt anymore (the new GaN ones are smaller)
- and of course: no magsafe anymore...
But I'm sure that three years from now they will have the "courage" to go back to their older superior design.