The last 15 years of computing can be described as "extract maximum revenue" rather than what people expected of computers during the 80/90/early 2000's.
Anyway, I've been considering building some pcie/m.2 boards for a couple of markets because the price difference between a "consumer grade" board and the server/embedded board with nearly the same features but minus a couple important things for some markets is about $25 in parts, but the markup is about $500. Its even worse in some of the built for purpose devices where wrapping a bit of sheet metal around said machine adds another $2k+.
The m.2 vs U.2 market is such a shitshow at the moment. And if one of the major players decides to create a form factor that happens to be compatible with m.2? Well huge industry outcry because they might remove everyones fat margins on "enterprise" gear.
Anyway, I've been considering building some pcie/m.2 boards for a couple of markets because the price difference between a "consumer grade" board and the server/embedded board with nearly the same features but minus a couple important things for some markets is about $25 in parts, but the markup is about $500. Its even worse in some of the built for purpose devices where wrapping a bit of sheet metal around said machine adds another $2k+.
The m.2 vs U.2 market is such a shitshow at the moment. And if one of the major players decides to create a form factor that happens to be compatible with m.2? Well huge industry outcry because they might remove everyones fat margins on "enterprise" gear.