Man, that half a millimetre difference between connected and disconnected drove me nuts. It is absolutely infuriating because there is zero physical feedback when you try to connect the cable.

I don't have anything helpful to offer but I feel your pain. Reading your comment almost brings on PTSD from remembering what it was like.

I actually restored my 2015 Macbook Pro and have been so happy and content using that in the past two years or so. Not sure about the other sizes, but my 13" from 2015 does everything better than the one from 2017. Performance, keyboard, connectors. None of the overheating bullshit where the fan is constantly going and performance is throttled.