This suits a need I only recently identified 
We’ve been using these for the last six months or so to connect Macs to our company wired network. Work great, highly recommended.
…not sure if USB Hub with Ethernet port, or Ethernet port with USB hub…
USB extension cable that features two additional USB ports and a bonus ethernet connection.
I have an Anker unit that looks just like that. The USB hub works great for connecting an Apple ethernet dongle… which I have to since the Anker can’t keep a reliable connection going. Here’s hoping this unit sucks less.
Is this for people with more money than sense? I have a non-Apple laptop and it has all those ports built in. Is that what lightning is really for: connecting to outboard widgets that give you the ports you want back?
Given I’ve got a CR48 as a backup machine and it has no eathernet port? This is useful to me.
Edit: Also can splice it onto a raspberry pi zero, because Why Not?
One the drawbacks of slim laptops is no Ethernet port, I was just in the market for one of these and went with the Anker.
I like that the Anker is black and it has a removable usb3 cord which makes it pack down slimmer. As a bonus, in a pinch, you could use the still rare usb3 cord on another device.
If you’re going to be constantly on ethernet it may be silly to get a laptop without ethernet built in but … if you’re mostly not going to be on ethernet, it’s kind of a waste of space to have it built into the computer.
So the desktop I built has ethernet and no wifi. When I shop laptops, though, I don’t look for ethernet. What I specifically look for (on top of RAM, CPU, video, etc.) is a lack of optical drive. I rarely ever use an optical drive and when I do I have a nice external one that suits my needs.
When I don’t need it, I’m not lugging around a 15.4" laptop that weighs five pounds from all the things I generally don’t need on a laptop. I haven’t once missed the built in optical drive on either of my two most recent laptops (one mac, one PC) and I haven’t felt a need to buy a USB ethernet connector either.
Didn’t use the ethernet on my third most recent laptop either. Both it and the optical drive were both there. 
A little trick I have learned with these is that since they are powered over USB, I just plug the cable into its own hub. This way it generates electricity from nothing while still having room to power two additional devices. And now with a bonus RJ45 ethernet jack, I can also use it to power the entire internet. How dope is that?
Is there one with a microUSB/MHL plug? And with an HDMI port and 2 USB ports and 1 ethernet port? This would instantly make my laptop obsolete and I could use my phone instead.
A mere <3 is inadequate to express my admiration of your notion.
I used a version of this, made by Diamond (of old videocards fame) with a Lenovo Ideastick 3000, a Windows 10 HDMI stick, which has crappy wifi.
I used some from another manufacturer. They were faster than the Apple lightning gigabit adapters, but unfortunately stop working if the Mac goes to sleep for a while and will only work again after a restart.
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