It was very likely a designers decision. It forces the use the use case they wanted; wireless mice should be used wirelessly. I would bet they fought marketing and management to get this on the final product.

Marketing would want the mouse they can advertise as being useable with and wireless. Female ports are easier to mount and manufacture with they have depth to set the socket. So a plug on the front is much cheaper and easier to manufacture.

The fact the charging cable doesn’t get used in motion means it will last longer and you wouldn’t have people useing fraying cables on the front of their mouse.

PARTIALLY!? The Vision shipped without a lens cover. It did ship with a cover for the outside face.

What marketing genius uses a mouse upside down.

They also know their target audience has plenty of people who gobble up every bad design decision and even defend it online years later.

People treat it like a mistake, but the Emperor has no clothes and people are catching on.

I don't understand what was wrong with the original version that just took 2 AA batteries. Reaching for the AA charger and swapping cells not awkward enough or something?

Smart and elegant design would be hiding a battery charger in the iMac it self (maybe even use something smaller than AA), not expect you to flip and plug in your mouse every time ya leave it. The Nintendo Switch, while a completely different form factor, is a great example of an elegant (you could even say "wireless") charging solution.

I'm getting really sick of the Apple esthetic of sticking out wires, be it the mouse or the dozen dongles for every portable device they now make. Uh! Can't forget the world's only pen that needs charging, for seemingly no reason.