There is a place for a more-ports-thicker-battery laptop, and there is a place for a $2000 headless Mac.
I don't think the
place is the issue. I think the
actual customer segment is too low. A titanic majority of people who say "I need more ports" are just looking for USB.
Just USB! We carry a USB-C 3-port hub with power pass-through for $40. One thing to plug in. People bitch until they use them. Then, they don't bitch any more. It's just one thing to unplug and they're on their way.
I'm not saying there aren't any people out there who travel and work from their computers and have every stupid thing to plug in you can imagine, but oddly enough those folks represent a significant portion of the "It's too heavy" crowd.
They want thin and light,
and they want all the ports,
and they want a built-in CD,
and they want 4TB of storage,
and they don't want to carry a power adapter,
and they want a 17" screen,
and they want RAM sockets,
and they want a mouse,
and they want …
And then all they do is Word and Powerpoint.
What they actually
use is not what they actually
need.
Personally, I would
love to see Apple make the two computers in question. The $2000 headless Mac would sell well (but Apple would need to also offer a
very good 4k display for $750). Not so sure about the laptop. I have one client that would buy an average of 10 per year (very few of their employees take them home, so
they should be buying desktops 
) , but 99% of consumers wouldn't even look. The Air represents about 75% of our laptop sales, and the 21" iMac about 75% of desktop sales. 15" MacBook Pro's are probably 15%, and 13" Pro's 10%. 27" iMacs then bring in about 20% of desktops, and the Mac Mini about 5%. Mac Pro sales, at about 1 every 2 years, represent a number close enough to 0% that we'll go ahead and call it that (It's probably about .1%). When 17" MacBook Pro's were a thing, about 90% sold to rich people using Word, and the remaining 10% to actual, you know, pros! (I once sold a $9000 Mac Pro to a day-trader
).
The problem for Apple is profitability. Can they build these things and have them be profitable (yes, I know
Apple would be profitable, but would the segment?). I don't think they would be, which is why Apple does not make them. Demand is there, just not enough to drive segment-profitable sales.
And, yes, Apple could make cheap beige boxes, but we all know that is not what they do, nor do they want their name stamped on cheap beige boxes, which is why they are highly unlikely to ever license Mac OS again.