Feels like studio setups are personal and individual enough that you can't say it's fair or unfair for someone else to care about specific features. Everything I own, including my own modular synth, has MIDI DIN ports on them, so I too look for that in new gear, but friend of mine too don't use MIDI for anything, obviously he doesn't look for that :)
USB MIDI seems tempting, you can send a giant virtual MIDI cable snake down one wire, but the connector issue rears its head again. It'd be cool if there was a more robust standard for USB connectors. I bet industry, the military, scientists, professional audio people etc. would all love such a thing.
My newish MPC is a host and while it offers a lot of added functions over old MPCs, it works nearly identically for the MIDI sequencing workflow. In the old days I had an MPC 2000 and then 2000XL, I still own both. The newer MPC is both much cheaper, but it also allows me to get as many ins and outs as I can fill my rack and desk up with and more, all at once. You had to pay a lot extra to get the MPC3000 with 2 ins and 4 outs (IIRC), like $4-5k.
They really nailed it by offering more than the old MPCs but making it all completely optional to use, and keeping nearly the same workflow as the old ones. Only thing new MPCs can't do is bulk SYSEX dumps and vomits, I still keep an old Yamaha portable unit for that (runs on a bunch of AAs) with a modern USB floppy converter replacing the drive.
I agree about the MPC...I have a Force (because it was cheaper than a used MPC One and more powerful).
But when I don't feel like that paradigm, USB MIdi is not very useful (and of course an MPC can still work with TRS/DIN).
When I want lots of ins and outs, I use a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV (they're not much more than a decent USB hub and can filter and route and do all sorts of clocking).
Feels like studio setups are personal and individual enough that you can't say it's fair or unfair for someone else to care about specific features. Everything I own, including my own modular synth, has MIDI DIN ports on them, so I too look for that in new gear, but friend of mine too don't use MIDI for anything, obviously he doesn't look for that :)