And which nobody even thought of raising as an issue...

Because in the windows market, surface isn't a laptop targeting video editors, game programmers, etc. It's a thin and light entry. Contrast with lenovo portable workstations which got 64gb over a year ago: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/11/9129681/lenovo-skylake-xeo...

Apple produces every osx compatible device. This means it needs to produce at least one device that can meet the needs of power users.

Have you not watched MIcrosofts "can't do that in a Mac" campaign? 3D modelling, video editing, lots of heavy lift graphics apps...

And yet most video editors I know use Macs, same for "heavy lift graphics apps". Nobody (ie very few) run around with a 8lbs/4hour battery "desktop replacement" PC to do such things on the go.

I don't know about the surface, but I've bee putting off my 6 year old Thinkpad x220 because the current replacement, the x260 has a 16gb limit.

The X series of ThinkPads are designed to be slim and light. If you want 32GB in a ThinkPad, there are other series available with 32GB units.

Unfortunately, if you want a 32GB macOS laptop, you're out of luck with Apple.

The X200 line (and predecessors X30 and X60 lines) are the 12" workhorse line that's more rugged than thin-and-light. The X1 line is the thin-and-light one.

x220 is neither thin nor light! Especially with the extra battery. This is why I buy the x200 Thinkpad because they are small and can be used anywhere, yet thick an heavy because they are, or at least used to be, loaded.

Right. I went X30 -> X40 -> X61s -> Tablet 2 -> Helix 2, the Tablet 2 as an experiment (I love the keyboard that came with it and keep that paired with my Nexus 7 now for emergency ssh-ing) and then I jumped to the Helix 2 rather than another X series because there didn't seem any point.

Somewhere around 2019-2020 when I finish destroying the Helix 2 I'll probably end up back on an X series.

Not to mention the Dell XPS 13 which also uses LPDDR3 and maxes out at 16 GB.