Fair enough. Upon investigation, I've discovered there are a fair few OS X official system shortcuts which utilize function keys.
But I think you're an edge case. Apple targets hard the average consumer, and there are plenty (my parents) who don't understand an arbitrary mapping of a number to a function. The self-explanatory icons (the speaker with lots of sound vs no sound, the universal play triangle, etc.) are far more understandable. So why not save space?
Yes, I'm an edge case. I seek out a quality laptop that I can get work done on. That's what we are discussing, no?
As for "saving space", huh? A thinkpad is the same size as a macbook - both are as wide as their screen plus a little extra. The thinkpad is just covered with ugly buttons instead of pretty metallic empty space.
Yes, but you're far more proficient. Those who plug away happily at 30WPM will not share your definition of quality.
I'll take a beautiful product that sacrifices minor functionality (in my case) for aesthetics. My point is not that a MacBook is right for you, but that Apple seems to have rightly assumed that most people don't care about the function keys, and spared the ugly buttons.
In any case, you're probably saving a grand every time you buy a laptop, so maybe the joke's on us.
A single button works great for a gun. A computer does more things than a gun so it needs more buttons.