[hnbad]

Counterpoint: driving two screens is something a $500 Windows laptop could easily do years ago so Apple offering a "pro" MBP that can't do this is a surprising choice especially when other MBP laptops have been able to do so in the past at similar price points. That this is because the "pro" laptop actually uses a mobile chip just means it's misleading advertising by using the established MBP brand to sell a completely different product.

You should generally assume your customer is an idiot and while it is legal to take advantage of customers being idiots, it's still deliberately abusive and not something Apple is known for doing given its reputation.

His criticism is valid: this is not a product matching what customers are used to from the MBP product line and it's even labelled as "pro" suggesting more capabilities not fewer (though of course this is technically correct relative to the non-pro version of the same model). He doesn't feel "a little guilty and self conscious", he feels scammed and taken advantage of. Was it a scam? I don't think so, but it was (deliberately or unintentionally) misleading advertising.