It looks like the folks at Apple insist on misinterpreting the "less is more" principle. Apple is becoming more each day a dictatorship company who thinks that whatever product it launches, they will be loved as they were in 2000's.
They've always been an opinionated company producing opinionated products, right back to the launch of the very first Mac which was criticised for only being able to do what Steve Jobs wanted you to do. Or think of the original iMac - no floppy drive and USB-only connectivity before it had really taken off. Or the first iPhone launching with less features and connectivity than its competitors.
The times they tried to please everyone are when they did most poorly - remember the dreadful Performa range with loads of meaningless variations?
As the article notes, the original Air was very similar to the purported new Air. It had a micro-DVI, a single USB port and a headphone jack.
It didn't quite succeed, but I'd guess more because of its anemic performances (SSD was an expensive option to an already costly machine, the CPU wasn't exactly a performance star, and let's not talk about the GMA X3100) than its I/O limitations. And if anything things have gotten better since (more wireless and "cloud" with less physical connectivity required).
This is the biggest issue with this Air - that if you want to charge this laptop and use anything, even a USB mouse with it, you will need a usb adapter with power pass-through. It's just stupid. They should have left Magsafe 2 on it + USB-C, or at least 2 USB-C ports, so you can use one for charging and another for video/data.