Q: How to overcome the limit of just 2 Thunderbolt connections?

I"ve got a top of the range MacBook Pro Retina. It's very good but I'm baffled as to why I only  get two Thunderbolt connections. I need one for my ethernet connection (I had to purchase an additional connector), one to connect my Mac Display (which also eats up one of the two USB ports)  and one to connect my Firewire backup disk (again with additional costs to buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter). That's three. To access my external disk I have to disconnect either the ethernet or the screen. Is this really the way it is??

Yes, I can spend $330 to buy a Belkin Thunderbolt Express dock, but surely Apple should be providing the material to do something as basic as connecting to ethernet and an external firewire disk at the same time.

Indeed, it's also a major pain having to carry all the additional Thunderbolt to Ethernet and Thunderbird to Firewire connectors everwhere. Yet more things that can get lost. There is plenty of room on the side of my mac for a dedicated ethernet and firewire connection... were Apple just trying to save money??

Also 2 USBs is really mean. With one used up by the Apple display, one for my external CD drive, there is nothing left for anything else like connecting an iPhone or iPad charger.