I disagree, many people use laptops as replacement desktop these days so having expansion ports is important. My new job gave me an X1 Carbon with only two USB type A ports and this is my workstation now. If I want to use any accessories like a mouse or external keyboard (set the laptop on a stand so it's level with an external monitor), I immediately run into an issue with having enough expansion room.

If you're doing nothing but sitting in meetings and taking notes, the battery life will follow due to the light use. But for many people, a laptop is as much of a computer as they'll ever use, so having the ability to expand is crucial.