Apple released a 12" MacBook in early 2015 which was the first to have the butterfly keyboards.

A guy I worked with bought one and complained about it relentlessly.

True. In my case I didn't need a laptop for 2015/2016, but I'm typically an "every 2 years" kind of person. When 2016 rolled out I knew I was going to be taking care of that 2013 laptop for a long while.