It is a basic feature. I dare you to find a single laptop not made by Apple with an MSRP of $1000+ that only does a single external monitor that's currently sold. If all your competitors have it, it's table stakes.

Sure SOME people can tolerate it or are dumb enough to reward Apple for it, but it doesn't make a basic feature premium.

> If all your competitors have it, it's table stakes

If all you do is tail the competition. Most laptop users don’t use a second monitor. This is a silly gripe.

Lol "most"

Go to any software company and see how many people are using dual monitors with their company issues laptops

And many of those developers have dual monitor at home

Same for many other people who work on data/finances/etc who need multiple, large monitors to work efficiently

Presumably most people using two external monitors close the laptop lid?

What does that have to do with anything lol

Quite a lot. A laptop screen + external monitor is an awkward solution. Display size and pixel density issues make it annoying to navigate the combined desktop environment. I have very little interest in doing so, personally -- if I'm using an external monitor, I'm generally never using my laptop screen.

You still can't use a second external monitor if you close the laptop screen on a base M1/M2/M3. So that's why they're asking how is it relevant here.

Right my point was that wanting to connect two monitors isn't some niche thing like laptop screen + 2 monitors which indeed would be more niche