My understanding is that in Europe, its somewhat of a common practice. Not sure if that's applied to Surface or Laptops, but I know in terms of gaming consoles (more so the old ones), the charger/power supply was in many times a separate purchase. I have a friend from Germany who brought that to my attention years back.

If Microsoft did start shipping things without the charger, I can't say I wouldn't be surprised. With the more recent devices, they advertise "Fast Charging" but only with the 65w charger. Aside from the 15-inch laptops, the Pro and Laptop 13-inchers come with a 45w charger. I suspect that was done largely to persuade people to buy the faster charger which is a separate purchase. While obviously a cash grab, I think was also done to get consumers accustomed to buying the charger separate.

But also with Microsoft's release of the USB-4 dock, I suspect Surface connect may not be long for this world. Especially when Thunderbolt 5 hits . Either they need to beef up Surface Connect, or more likely they'll just ditch it, hopefully with the addition of a 3rd TB4/5 port if we're lucky.

However if they do go all USB-C and stop giving chargers (at least for low powered devices) I wouldn't really mind. I have multiple 100w-140w USB-C chargers everywhere. With so many devices nowadays using USB-C power, I would suspect many households are likely the same. they would have to include the cable though, that's parts still a nightmare with USB-C.