Why on earth is the power button on the keyboard where 'Delete' should be?

Doofer

I have recently bought (and am using right now) a Swift 5 - little to complain about and awesome lightness for the traveler.

However, I am completely baffled about what the rationale was for putting the power button where the Delete key should be?

We all spend years learning to touch-type quickly and accurately, and this includes the basic essential function keys such as Esc and Del. So why oh why oh why did someone in the Acer design team presumably get drunk one night and decide to play a practical joke on its customers by swapping a Power button for the Delete key? I have to further speculate that they were a senior member of the team, because the next morning, instead of saying "Sorry guys, I got drunk last night and did something daft on the main keyboard spec", they clearly doubled-down in some sort of 'shame culture' thing to try and avoid embarrassment... thereby dragging the reputation of the whole company down with them.

And they emphasize their joke at the user's expense by making it an 'instant off' button, unlike most power buttons where you have to press them for a bit - TO AVOID ACCIDENTALLY TURNING OFF THE LAPTOP IN THE MIDDLE OF IMPORTANT TASKS. I don't usually capitalise text, because it comes across as shouting, but really, putting an 'instant off' button where a commonly-used function key is usually found is spectacularly unhelpful, unless perhaps you're a teenager eager to conceal your web browser when your parent walks into the room.

And the final act in this comedy of errors is to give no sensible re-mapping options for this key. The only thing you can do to avoid repeatedly turning this d*mn thing off when touch-typing is to disable it. So, congratulations, in the most valuable real-estate on the laptop - the keyboard - you've wasted an entire key.

Maybe there's a really logical reason to put the power button where the Delete key should be. But it's going to have to be a really good one, to convince me this isn't just a really, really poor design decision. And if it is the latter, for goodness sake release a patch so we can use that key for something else - 'Power off on long press'?... 'Delete'(!)?... Huh, maybe?. Just having to disable it is so amateur.
T

JackE

>>>what the rationale was for putting the power button where the Delete key should be?>>>

I'm gonna guess that it was cheaper to make than putting the power button someplace else. But you bought it anyway. Do you think I guessed right?   Jack E/NJ