Because it fits other parameters of practicality. Gatekeeping what's a real sports car might fly on car enthusiast forums, but it just isn't a good look outside of them (it's not a good look there either, tbh).

Mazda sells a decent number of automatic Mazdas each year (24% of softtops, 48% of hardtops in 2018-2019 according to auto blog), so people are buying them. The reason to buy a hypothetical electric Miata? Same as for any sports car - it's faster than yours, or at least as fast I can afford.

Whether there's a market for them, I can't say, but if someone doesn't understand the existing market for an existing car, I'm extremely doubtful of their predictions about a hypothetical new car in that niche.

Miatas are completely impractical cars. Have you actually driven one?

Of course it comes down to personal taste, but I can’t understand why you’d buy a “fun car” but strip away all the things that make it fun. There are much better alternatives at that point.

I’d buy a small electric sports car because of the high acceleration. I drove manual transmissions all my life and, while it’s fun in a race course, it’s far less entertaining in traffic.

Gas-powered cars are annoying to drive in traffic because the engine has a minimum RPM. EVs don't have that, so in stop-and-go traffic you'd be able to just leave it in 2nd gear the whole time and never touch the clutch.

Technically there's no reason an EV Miata couldn't have a manual transmission, it's just that auto manufacturers so far have largely decided they'd rather just opt for a more powerful motor than deal with the drive train complexity, weight, and friction losses of a transmission.

I don't expect Mazda to make a manual transmission EV Miata but it's something they could do if they really wanted to.

I thought a valuable experience in driving a fun car would go missing when going to an electric. Not so. Driving a fast, well handling electric is pure joy to me.

Fine. We'll design a control system for EVs where you can feel that a fake clutch actually does something. We can supply speakers and a simulated tach to give the full sports car experience.

Really my own guess is that the manual trans will continue on the way out due to emissions law if nothing else (and lack of interest). Modern cars have little visceral interest in any case, probably better to buy a hemicuda with a stick or a Cobra kit.