1. 1/4" is a common, but terrible option. The suggestion is to replace it with a builtin plate for the current status-quo, the common Arca-Swiss mount.
2. Optical remotes aren't for selfies. Smartphones on stupid sticks are for selfies.
3. Most new cameras have WiFi. It doesn't affect battery life when you're not using it. They're just usually really slow, so picture upload/sync that should take 1 min tops take 1 hour instead.
Remote live-view and exposure/focus control works quite well, though, as it doesn't need that much bandwidth. There's also BLE, which in my camera allows remote control from smartphone without affecting battery life in any measurable way (BLE consumption is negligible).
4. Camera batteries are insanely expensive (and no, they don't contain anything magic or special, unlike what they want you to believe—apart from DRM, they're completely standard batteries worth about $20 retail when branded), they're DRM'd to avoid third-party manufacturing (which leads to more recent battery copies being unable to show charge level due to skipping this circuitry), they're often change shape just to force you to buy new batteries and chargers instead of reusing them, they don't support common charging specs (USB and Qi, for example—it would be practical to be able to juice up the camera while its in the bag between shootings), ...
Others do too (Watson, Wasabi, ...), but they're all made by reversing the bloody DRM, and those companies state that they're having problems reverse-engineering the DRM of the newer batteries (the actual battery management/protection circuitry is entirely standardized, and costs nothing).
LP-E17 is an example of a still non-reversed battery. Duracell doesn't have one, and those that do sell third-party clones pretend to be the DC adapter battery dummy to make things work, resulting in no battery gauge.
Why would camera manufacturers do that? So they can force you into paying 60 USD for the extra batteries you need to have. Preferably multiple times, as you change camera bodies.
I would imagine that if they lowered their crazy income margin, people would buy more original batteries, even if they kept the DRM. Instead, people buy good third-party batteries for 1/6th of the price, sometimes giving up on the battery gauge to do so.
Yes, it's the highest order of shitty behaviour. For the record, I have two Duracell EN-EL15's and they both work (including the gauge) with my Nikon D500.
> Optical remotes? I don't take selfie. I press the button.
The OP had a specific complaint about cameras not having an IR receiver at the back, i.e., for non-selfies. Remotes are useful for bulb shots, for reducing camera shake, and many other things.
I think he was mostly joking about it being for non-selfies.
Depending on exact location, the accepted angles should be slightly less than 180 degrees in front of the camera—you don't need to be anywhere near the subject, unless you got a fisheye mounted.
It's just a bit silly that the default approach wasn't RF, rather than optical, even if they put receivers on all sides of the camera. Some new cameras have BLE though, which is nice and solves most problems (although I prefer physical remotes to poorly written apps).
Then you have see by yourself that IR receiver are for selfie if they are on front... It strange when you are right people still downvote you.
Sorry if the majority of people buy DSLR without using it correctly. It's like owning a Apple, or a Gaming computer but don't understand nothing at all or do it by trends. Same apply with camera where everybody know everything.
Majority of people in the street have DSLR and take selfie by hand. You know now why it sucks.
Optical remotes? I don't take selfie. I press the button.
Wifi? lol, no thanks. I want a camera not a phone and I don't want 1 hour of battery.
Battery problem? where? just buy battery pack...