That's exactly the point. Apple are catering to the vast majority of people rather than the smaller minority of power users. Even among power users those people who regularly hotswap must be pretty slim.
I travel a fair amount for work and I have a second battery for my MBP which I almost never use. Airports mostly have somewhere to plug laptops in these days even if you aren't in the lounge.
As long as people can easily have a dying battery replaced (especially one which last 1000 cycles) at a service center I can't imagine that many ruffled feathers.
Worst case you can always get an external battery.
I travel a fair amount for work and I have a second battery for my MBP which I almost never use. Airports mostly have somewhere to plug laptops in these days even if you aren't in the lounge.
As long as people can easily have a dying battery replaced (especially one which last 1000 cycles) at a service center I can't imagine that many ruffled feathers.
Worst case you can always get an external battery.