Don't even speak to me of optical drives ;-; My own laptop is finally failing me after years and years of heavy use (similar to what you described re:your old one, this baby has been through a lot), and not ONE potential replacement for sale has an optical drive. I definitely use it more than once a year though :'D

But yeah, in general I think they're thinning out laptops way too much in detriment of functionality. I'd rather have all the ports I need and then some instead of some paper-thin thing that will leave me struggling to find adapters to get my stuff on there, and that looks as if it'll break if I lean on it wrong. I hope it'll work well for you (and that your Executive Assistant doesn't go through with the chewing)!