For people on the move, we don't really use optical drives. That's what it is built for. My Fujitsu tablet CD-ROM is detachable - and 95% of the time, it's never docked in. My extra battery is in its place. It makes perfect sense. The time I would really need it is during installation (and rarely), and Apple solved that issue. And more and more software is now downloadable without installation CDs.
But, still no Mac for me. Perhaps when they come up with a Mac tablet with multi-touch features....