The question no one is asking: Why is it necessary to complain first before Apple will address stuff like this?

The Apple corporation is like a gigantic dongle on every modern Apple computer. The computer out of the box does not work without being connected to the Apple corporation. Unless of course the user is a skilled nerd that stays up-to-date with the latest Apple design decisions and can perform a number of command line incantations to "disable the dongle".

Good thing they listened. There was simply no excuse for this 'feature'.