I am a heavy computer user. I program in about 10 languages (often for fun). I browse, I play games, I watch movies. I use Adobe movie and still picture products like crazy (for the webcomic among others). I present technical talks and short courses for work. All that being said, I in all serious honesty cannot remember the last time I needed more than a single USB port, and even that is rare. I plug in a keyboard and mouse to my PC, but that's it. Other than backing up stuff, I haven't used an optical drive in ages. Almost everything is downloaded now.
Now that being said, I'm not 100% behind this change--I just wanted to make the joke. I think it's a step too far. It could've done with a separate power port. And the built-in SD reader. But it's hardly the first laptop to drop an optical drive.
People have been asking for fewer ports for years! Firs serial ports and parallel ports. Then modems. Ethernet makes sense, because I have used the Ethernet port maybe once on my current Macbook Pro. I think for the mainstream user, this isn't that odd.