While I agree that Mac trackpads are fantastic, there's still a need for variety. For some reason, I don't feel at home using a trackpad in certain programs, such as Photoshop. The Magic Mouse feels better in that scenario, like I have a little more control.

For general computer use and coding, I prefer the trackpad.

Ah, YMMV. I don't do any graphics/precise movement - mostly coding/shell/typing) and in this case trackpad is simply excellent - movement is precise and it's perfectly handy/accessible.

I generally prefer the trackpad for productive tasks, but I never got the hang of using it for my weird Minesweeper obsession. A mouse has a lot of non-input leverage and physical control that’s very hard to replicate (for me, others swear by trackpads even for high pace, high accuracy pointer input like this).

Sometimes I'm using it as a laptop, the touchpad is absolutely great, I wouldn't do it any other way.

Other times, I have it plugged into a monitor and a desktop keyboard. In those cases, I want a real mouse plugged in.

Because mouse has more buttons and can use better gestures and rocking clicks to go back and forth

I did use a lot of gestures (especially in browsers, Opera from 10-15 years ago?) but with trackpad you have virtually the same? Single tap=left click, two-fingers tap = right click, cmd+tap = middle click. Two fingers swipe left/right = navigate forward/backward?

What about 2-4 side mouse buttons? What about wheel left/ right motion? What about optional infinite scroll?

I never used those? I usually preferred keyboard shortcuts so laptop (MPB) with hands on the keyboard + occasional use of touchpad for "movement" was more than enough?

> I never used those?

Sure, but presumably your original question wasn't addressed to yourself? With a better external keyboard you don't have a trackpad, and even with the internal one sometimes it's more convenient to use the more capable tool