Cable proliferation and elimination seem to go hand in hand. On one side you have technologies like HDMI which allows 2 way communication through the cables in your AV world (finally!) allowing Multiple devices to turn on simultaneously and has the potential to drastically simplify the user experience (once protocols become more universal)… And the flip are new technologies like ATMOS effectively doubling wiring but creating amazing home theater effects. You can go ultra simple, and you can go ultra high performance, but it is hard to do both. I have parallel set ups in our living room so I can live with both ends of the spectrum.
On the no headphone jack topic, LeEco also eliminated their headphone jacks. You may not have heard of LeEco but this is a huge brand in China with global ambitions. Wishing these couple of years these brands will establish themselves in the US. The