> As long as majority of laptop buyers are content consumers, this is not going to change. However...

That would be understandable for the consumer focused lineups but most manufactures also produce business models which are bought to create something and still suffer from the same problem. As can be seen in the example of the Thinkpad keyboards were already better but somehow they decided to worsen them.

> the power users (remaining audience) is willing to pay for nice tools.

As said there already is this business/consumer split and it has been for many years. Business is where the money is made, not at the consumer front where it can't be cheap enough, yet the devices inside this category weirdly are more and more designed not to be the workhorses they are supposed to be.