It's not expensive, it's inconvenient. Being able to quickly jack in to a gigabit network and not have to worry about fiddling about with wifi keys and unreliable speeds is something you should get with a high end laptop like an MBP.

I've been using (and carting) a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter since I bought my first Retina in 2012 and it's really not all that bad. If you're constantly using it daily then carrying it around isn't a huge ask.

When you work in an actual office with several dozen machines besides you, interference becomes important.

Also, the profit margin on those adapters is pretty astounding.

In the office, all I plug into my MacBook Pro is the Thunderbolt connector to the monitor and the power adapter. The monitor is connected via wired ethernet.

This way I only have to plug in two cables instead of an array of cables. This is why I really don't miss the Ethernet port directly on the machine. For me personally, the gains in portability due to smaller size (and weight) are way more relevant than the theoretical ability to plug in an ethernet cable which I never need.

There have been about 10 times in the last few years when I have walked into a meeting someplace where there wasn't any guest wifi, or we needed the internal network for other reasons.

Here in Switzerland companies stopped granting guest access over the last few years. You're expected to bring your own infrastructure which usually boils down to tethering your mobile.

I can see that this is very much country dependent (we have truly unlimited plans that allow tethering), but at least for me, the smaller size of the machine trumps the ability to plug ethernet cables due to the general lack of available cables to plug.

>Here in Switzerland companies stopped granting guest access over the last few years.

Why, they don't have the skills to create a private wi-fi network for guests?

Why bother when your own 4G connection could be significantly faster than sharing a 100/100Mbit with 80 other people?

I never use guest networks for that exact reason. I know that my traffic and my connection is my own, and works. Way easier imo.

4G tethering using your mobile! It's probably a lot faster as well, and no stupid company restrictions and logging.