[thought_alarm]

It's not odd at all for a machine that was designed in 1976/77.

However, for a machine released in 1983 (the Apple IIe) it is indeed very odd. But the IIe is an odd machine in many ways.

The Apple II platform stagnated as Apple poured all their resources into the Apple III (which has all those features and much more).

The Apple II refused to die, so Apple assigned a pair of engineers to design a cost-reduced version of the Apple II, and this became the IIe. The goal was only to minimize manufacturing costs, so the new features like timers were off the table.

The IIe became an unexpected smash hit in the home and education markets (stealing those markets from the 128k Mac), and only then did Apple devote some new resources to the platform (and reposition the 128k Mac as a laughably underpowered productivity machine).

The Apple IIc (1984) was the first Apple II to get a proper modern makeover. Of course it was a flop, while the odd-ball IIe continued to fly off the shelves.