The macbooks were never supposed to be a "power" machine. The whole purpose was a very portable, long batter life laptop. And it dose that very very well.
I would not call that giving up on performance...they just designed something for a purpose and it fits that purpose well.
Dude it has a 5 watt processor and a mobo the size of a raspi. I don't think their featherweight offering is appropriate to enter in the performance fight.
