Perhaps but I never once used all four thunderbolt ports at once on that gen of macbook.
I hazard a guess most users are the same and would prefer having a HDMI / SD card for those moments where you just forgot a dongle while travelling (or, as always happens to me - dongle breaking at the worst moment) and I think the modern MacBook IO is significantly better for it
I have two MacBook Pros on my desk that have all three Thunderbolt ports occupied basically all the time.
I could also assert my experience is universal too but I won't, as it would be dishonest to just make up statistics.