If you're the sort who leaves their Mac on all the time, then you won't be concerned about the power button. And you're also not concerned about the planet.
William, you have such a misunderstanding of how power efficient Mac sleep mode is, it’s absurd. Look at the wattage when sleeping. Do you routinely power up and down a MacBook, or simply close the lid as designed? Your iPad? No? Then what on earth are you talking about…
Every Mac can go into a low-power mode, allowing it to receive things from the web. Leaving any Mac on is actually better than power cycling it every time you use it. Startup requires a lot of energy and is something only casual users do. They aren't turning their Macs off to save energy, they're turning them off because that's how you used to do it back in the Intel days.
As for the button being on the bottom, that's actually a stupid move for Apple. When these go into server racks, and they will go there immediately after the M4 Mac mini Pro is released, data centers will complain. Sure they will only turn them on once but they will need the easy ability to manually power cycle them when needed.
So what? Are you dudes not aware that the bottom isn’t flat? There’s a large gap due to the fan, that’s where your finger can go. Non-issue.
I used to like the old iMac glowing power button on the front. When in sleep mode, it pulsed.
It pulsed at 16 cycles/minute, which is the average human resting respiration rate. I wish they would bring that back — not only was it very cool, but it made it easy to see if your Mac was asleep or if only the display had gone to sleep.
I live in an area prone to lightning, and I've already suffered electronic damage due to power surges. A full AC power disconnect adds a layer of safety to electronics, so I regularly remove all power to my setup via a master disconnect switch.
Apple could easily solve this "issue" by expanding the capability of the Energy setting "Start up automatically after a power failure" to include "Start up automatically when power is applied" (or something like that).
Also, the notion that repeated power cycling (versus sleeping) is harmful to your hardware was once true, but no longer applies. Electromechanical devices (like fans and HDDs) are way more robust these days, and it's highly unlikely you'd even keep your computer long enough to see any difference in lifespan. One possible exception might be if your computer is operating in a very cold or very hot environment, and sleeping could promote thermal stability.
All in all, it really makes little difference, so if it makes you feel good, do whatever you like.
I couldn't even tell you where on my Mac mini the power button is located. That's how infrequently I use it and I've had t since Late 2018.
“If you're the sort who leaves their Mac on all the time, then you won't be concerned about the power button. And you're also not concerned about the planet.”
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https://makerworld.com/en/models/744386?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0icq5HzTtbtLPrR6GCG1rLErGi5J3pRjGb_ALrRcj870GbcqyUF7pKqBc_aem_vqHOL7rX2lNy8y17UTGt1w#profileId-677132
That's a universal power icon - nothing to do with Apple except that they use it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_symbol