[phendrenad2]

This is an example of a spandrel, an evolutionary maladaptation that becomes self-reinforcing. The chain of events is as follows: Shaving 1.5" off the top of the keyboard and removing a row of media buttons saves the keyboard company $2 or something. So one budget keyboard company does it. Other companies see this and think "oh, they did market research and realized that people WANT a smaller keyboard more than they want media buttons" and suddenly you can't find a lightweight bluetooth keyboard with separate media buttons. The keyboard industry is blissfully unaware of their mistake until a brave soul named Dan Q blogs about it.

This kind of thing is usually quickly corrected, but in a niche like bluetooth keyboards with a touchpad (seriously how many use those other than nerds with jellyfin or a raspberry pi)