I might be in the minority here, but I'm perfectly happy with the USB-C only setup. My work laptop is a Dell, but has the same design as that top Mac with just two Thunderbolt ports on each side of the chassis.

Headphones? Bluetooth. My machine actually has a headphone jack, which I have not used once since receiving it.

RS-232? That's also Bluetooth, not as if USB-C to RJ45 serial console cables aren't widely available though.

Ethernet? Well in the rare event I need one of those it's more often going to be a Thunderbolt SFP+ adapter because most of my work is with fibre. In the rare event it is copper I'm quite often needing to use two at once, so would need at least one dongle even if the machine did have a port built in.

HDMI? Well you can buy a tiny adapter (about the size of a book of matches) that has a USB-C socket on one side and a HDMI plug on the other (about $13 on Amazon: https://i.imgur.com/iwmsa4L.jpeg). I already have to have a USB-C to USB-C cable in the bag for charging, it can do double-duty as a video cable.

The trick is to be smart about the dongles you do carry. The predominant style with a short cable terminating in a bulky body with whatever socket on it is almost always the worst style, sitting right next to your laptop getting in the way of whatever you're trying to do.

The biggest advantage though is having USB-C ports on BOTH sides of the machine, so the charger can plug in on either side. I think people have forgotten how much it sucked not being able to do that. You'd be surprised how many machines that have a 50-50 collection of USB-C and other ports put all the USB-C ports on one side so they're never in the location you need them to be.

Fully aware this isn't going to work for everyone, but people really need to stop pretending like it only has downsides because that absolutely isn't the case.