Perhaps you could do something like this, incorporating the jack into the PCB instead of an elevated component? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/XJACK_ne...

I never understood why Apple and other thin laptop manufacturers didn't do this? I remember X-Jacks fondly, and would love to have a super-thin laptop with ethernet.

Some ultrabooks have ethernet sockets that fold out. In my experience the reliability is ... mixed.