Apparently a lot of ‘professional/YouTube/whatever’ video work involves the use of external audio recorders and self-contained microphones which record to SDcard.

Modern video files can be enormous, especially when recording at 4K/60. I can see that SDcard slot getting a lot of use with mobile video content folks. The newly announced 8TB MacBook Pro model combined with the very nice built-in 16.2’ display seemingly fits with that work type.

Apple has often not been ‘shy’ about omitting older physical port standards. Sometimes that rubs me the wrong way, often enough I find that within a short while after I make the change I rarely need/use whatever older port is ‘missing’ from my new laptop, iPad or iPhone.

I have one (older) Apple laptop with built-in USB-A ports and two laptops with only USB-C/ThunderBolt ports. One is plugged into a desktop ThunderBolt docking station which provides USB-A ports (and a bunch of other ports).

I also have a small handful of compact/portable adapters between various port types. I find that I make use of a USB-A connection/adapter now and then but the frequency has been trending downwards.

Cables to other devices, I now have USB-C versions that connect to most other things I have around. So yes I did have to buy USB-C versions of some cables, but that is a one time expense. I do like being able to plug in USB-C stuff without fiddling around with which way is ‘up’.

Regarding the legacy USB stuff, I find micro-USB to be the most annoying as the connector indexing shape is hard to distinguish quickly and often the device has no marking to match the cable logo for ‘this side’.

My iPad has USB-C and I have a small portable docking adapter for it. With 1TB of internal iPad storage, that combo allows us to do a lot while mobile, including inhaling camera micro-SDcard data and HDMI out. The same adapter also works with the USB-C laptops.

This is the kind of USB-C thing I find interesting - external SSD storage that is fast and compact. I suppose similar things exist with USB-A, but this seems tidy and should work with my next laptop and iPad.

https://satechi.net/products/usb-c-hybrid-multiport-adapter?variant=39673064325208