Leaving actual discs behind can be a wrench, but not too painful. I've thought about buying an optical drive for my Retina Macbook Pro but have never needed it. You might get the feeling that you're being steered in a particular direction by Apple but it all works very well. I can take a photo in Nottingham that appears instantly on my iPad at home, download music without the need for a huge pile of CDs, watch 1080p films on a retina display, or send them to my TV via Apple TV, plan routes on google maps and send them to my iPhone etc.
You do have to get used to doing it a bit differently and overcome a feeling of leaving your old technology behind, but the Apple route is all very easy. The SSD drive is a bit smaller than you might expect, but you get used to being a bit more minimalist and it never crashes, you can close / open a Macbook Pro 1000 times a day without rebooting with no problems. The issue of "software" can be questionable, but many of the major providers now offer cloud type technology. This all relies on fast internet but I think that's part of the modern world. There is a genuine fear of losing data in the ether but I doubt that any major company would refuse a replacement download.
I personally can't recommend the Macbook highly enough, even with the higher price point.
