I half-expected them to have removed the charging port with how thin it was, but looking at the specs it's (thankfully) still there.

USB 2.0 speed only is a little disappointing but it's not the only high-end device not to have faster speeds.

I'm not an Apple user but from an engineering perspective it's hard not to be impressed by the levels of miniaturization involved.

What do you use USB for? Most likely your use cases are now classified “pro/expert”, and the Air isn’t focused on that segment.