Except it's not a ridiculous feature and it doesn't bother 'people around you'. It's a small light that makes the keyboard somewhat more visible, the illumination it provides outside the keyboard is negligible compared to the screen's back light, even on the lowest brightness settings. Many people, including me, would also rather have a small LED embedded in the laptop's lid that can be toggled anywhere than some USB clip-on attachment. I understand that this isn't your point and you'd rather go on about your premium laser etched fiber optic keys, but your notion that the Thinkpad keyboard light is a "ridiculous feature" is highly flawed.