i think i recall reading somewhere that apple designed the mouse in the way they did in order to prevent people just leaving the mouse on charge 24/7 and hence not using its wireless capability while negatively affecting the battery. i’m not saying i agree with apple’s decision, but i find the perspective interesting.
No, it was entirely to recycle the design and tooling of the Magic Mouse 1 which used AA batteries. The Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Keyboard came out the exact same day as the MM2 but both of those happily work plugged in and even work wired while plugged in.
But swapping tooling and retraining staff on assembly is extremely disruptive for a manufacturer. That disruption is passed back to the 1st party brand in incremental FOB and per-unit surcharge.
The incremental cost eats at your margin, which eats at your profit, which eats at your street price.
So, if you’re forced to choose between margin erosion and incremental cost for a product that has little effect on sales growth, you save the money and recycle the design.
People will bitch about the port on that mouse while they walk to the Apple Store to buy a new Mac that comes bundled with said mouse.
Apple will save millions annually by not optimizing a product that doesn’t really make them any money on its own.
When it’s reasonably cost effective to make a better peripheral, they will. Until then, they’re going to pay more attention to their books than people’s complaints, because mice don’t drive their business.