I can understand people want more vertical real estate, but for me the opposite is actually more useful. The thinkpad screen at 14" is wide enough for me to have two things side by side, often a command line and a file or two files, or (shocker) code beside documentation.
Whilst vertical space is appreciated, the fact is that practically everything is taller than your screen. You are going to be scrolling vertically and everything supports that as an essential feature. Horizontal scroll is a nighmare however.
It's also worth noting that Lenovo's 4k screen on the 15.6inch actually fits more pickels vertically than Apple's 16inch despite physically being shorter. Obviously YMMV with regards to what actually gets represented on your screen.
The thing is, taller displays (like the MS Surface, Dell XPS, LG Gram, etc.) aren't necessarily sacrificing on width, they are just adding height. The goal is to maximize the amount of ergonomic screen real estate.
Of course, there will always be scrolling, but it's much easier to see where you are in the file if more of it is visible at a time.
So one hardware feature (screen format) is like it is, because another hardware feature (horizontal scrolling) is not implemented? Especially touch pads can work perfectly well for horizontal scrolling.
And if you actually use a mouse, in most cases nowadays, you have a desktop monitor and usually not one but multiple, so totally different rules apply there.
But my biggest argument would be that we did not have problems with paper formats ever, but out of a sudden 16:10 or 16:9 is supposed to be better. Sure, software today is fitting a to a modern screen but that is only because it has been designed to fit such a screen.
I guess I'm also a unique snowflake since I actually like 16:9 screens more than 16:10.
For work, more vertical space is nice but so is more horizontal space - it's useful for longer lines and various sidebars and such that all software has lately. I don't really have a preference there.
But for "fun" 16:9 is better since with 16:10 you have black bars in most media, no matter if it's a movie or conference talk or whatever. And fun is important use case for a laptop - I wanna watch movies on a plane or train, and even at home since it's mobile. Having big TV in living room is nice, but being able to watch cooking video right in the kitchen, or tinkering video in garage is great.
I'm actually kinda bummed that Dell went to 16:10 on XPS 13, since I was eyeing that as my next laptop.
Whilst vertical space is appreciated, the fact is that practically everything is taller than your screen. You are going to be scrolling vertically and everything supports that as an essential feature. Horizontal scroll is a nighmare however.
It's also worth noting that Lenovo's 4k screen on the 15.6inch actually fits more pickels vertically than Apple's 16inch despite physically being shorter. Obviously YMMV with regards to what actually gets represented on your screen.