<https://www.theverge.com/22734645/apple-macbook-pro-2021-ports-magsafe-touch-bar-usb-c-future>

"We all know what ended up happening, but I think an interesting question to
ask is what Apple thought was going to happen after it transitioned
wholesale to USB-C. For what it's worth, the company seemed, at the time, to
have been genuinely caught off guard by the anger from users having to buy
endless adaptors to connect basic accessories and, shortly after the release
of its 2016 MacBook Pros, cut prices across swathes of its USB-C adapter
lineup to help users "transition" to the new standard."

"To me, this suggests Apple thought #DongleLife was going to be a temporary
transitional phase rather than the new normal it eventually became. For an
example of the kinds of accessories it thought would become commonplace in
the future, take a look at the 5K display from LG it announced onstage at
the same event, which it said was designed to pair with the new MacBook Pro.
The display used a single Thunderbolt 3 cable for video, power, and data and
also acted as a USB hub, thanks to a trio of additional USB-C ports."

"It's easy to see Apple ditching ports as a cynical cash grab in an attempt
to drive sales of its own dongles and USB-C accessories. But a more generous
reading is that Apple got its bet on the future wrong. It thought it could
outsource a laptop's ports to desk-based accessories like monitors and docks
to make its laptops slimmer and more compact. But that ecosystem never seems
to have taken off or become ubiquitous, and what happened instead was that
people were forced to carry around endless adapters for simple tasks."
--
Apple marketing perfected sales of unnecessary accessories for pure profit
(not only due to the sales but also due to the all-important lockin effect)