I think your confusion is stemming from your perspective. To you, smaller and lighter is unequivocally a Good Thing- However my 2013 MBP 15" is already light enough that I can one hand it comfortably, and can carry it everywhere without noticing. If they'd allowed the new machine to stay at the same thickness, they could have gotten more battery life out of it, which would be something that I would consider a priority- They could also have conceivably crammed a newer, faster graphics card in to it, which in a time when the entire world is starting to look towards AR development, would be a welcome addition. There are a lot of creative professionals, like writers and some developers, for whom the new machine is fine, but there are plenty who have a massive investment in outboard peripherals (that now need a couple hundred dollars worth of adaptors), as well as requirements for power that's now being offered in PC portables but not Macs, and for us the new machine with its compromises and price inflation was a slap in the face.

As for what wasn't released alongside it, I'm talking about desktop machines. Apple's desktop machines are direly out of date. Speaking only as an audio engineer, I need a machine that I can rack in a machine room and slot my dante card in to. There are many more who have multi-card HDX setups who are even more screwed by the current Mac desktop situation. For apple to use "Hello Again" in their teaser for the event and then /not/ release a new Mac desktop was another slap in the face to people who have been waiting /years/ now to upgrade.

So again, to answer your question in the context of the 2016 rMBP, The machine itself was slightly disappointing. The fact that it was the only machine that we got at that event compounded the disappointment exponentially- and the combination of the two is indicative of a thought pattern at Apple that's out of touch with what their long term userbase has always used their Macs for.

Thank you. So for the laptop (as opposed to the desktop) if I understand you, a more powerful dGPU isn't important, but longer battery life would be.

As for me and people like me at the university (e.g. students, researchers, etc), we complain that the 15" 2015 laptop is too heavy because on its own (I'm in NYC so we walk, take subways which are faster than Uber or Taxi by far during busy times of the day which are frequent). The weight of the laptop case, a charge often, and books and papers that I use adds up to a lot.

Again, it's a matter of perspective. Strictly speaking, I don't need a faster dGPU for audio. But I also work in VR, and right now I need a separate computer for that, even with a brand new "pro" laptop with a pay-through-the-nose dGPU option, which is yet another disappointment.

As for the weight, again it's a matter of perspective. If it's too heavy for you, that's a valid complaint. But I carry my machine, and a charger, at minimum, everywhere I go, and I frequently have to check to make sure I remembered to put it in my bag because I can barely feel it. At that point, for me, remembering what carrying a 10lb machine everywhere felt like, making it some fraction of a pound lighter just does not take priority over better battery or more power.