Absolutely agree with your first point. If this machine is such a detriment to OP's productivity, surely their time would be better spent communicating this with their IT/procurement team over making a public blog post.
The idea that you can't share an opinion on something unless you paid for it doesn't hold much water, for me.
Sure, he can bug the IT department for a different one.
Is he allowed to write about it if he got it as a gift? 20% off open box?
TFA lays out a ton of reasons why this is a particular problem beyond personal griping, ex. the cheaper MBA has a workaround that was promised to also land for the MacBook Pro, months ago, and it still hasn't.
If I’d got a 85” TV as a gift, should I complain about the fact it has 2 HDMIs instead of 6 I require? Such TVs are usually expensive so I could argue it should have 6 ports but then there’s some kind of compromise design is making.
I’d argue that having 2+ external monitors is not a standard cohort of users, and I’d check support before buying (in fact, numer of HDMI ports is one of the main parameter I check in TV contest). Yes, it doesn’t support that, it’s not a secret though.
Should it support? I, personally don’t care. Some people care. For those who care it’s design flaw, for those who don’t it’s not.
Sure, he can bug the IT department for a different one.
Is he allowed to write about it if he got it as a gift? 20% off open box?
TFA lays out a ton of reasons why this is a particular problem beyond personal griping, ex. the cheaper MBA has a workaround that was promised to also land for the MacBook Pro, months ago, and it still hasn't.