It's purposeful. It's to force you to buy a new one.
A mouse with a normal charging cable placement can still be used by being plugged in when the battery goes dead.
This mouse, with the charging port on the bottom, becomes unusable once its battery goes dead.
No, it's because Apple hates it's customers and is happy to bilk them.
That said, they do make some very nice things, but participate in so much anti-consumer nonsense (not that that's any different from any other major corporation).