That needs a two stage converter down to chip voltages, doesn't it?
It's a reduction in cables, but I wouldn't say drastic. An 8-pin with good components can handle over 500 watts at 12 volts. Just modernizing gives you most of the possible benefit.
Eh, 500 watts at 12 volts is 42 amps. Assuming half of those 8 pins are positive, the other negative thats 10 amps per pin.
You’d better not have any corrosion in that connector, or a loose wire if you want to be able to do that without fire risk. And you’ll get non-trivial resistive heating in many cases over time.
Doing the same at 48 volts is 10.5 amps total, 2.6 amps per pin. Hard to mess that up.
I mean, the much smaller pins on the 12-pin got rated for 8.3 amps. And yes that connector does have issues, but they're around bad latching much more than current.
It's a reduction in cables, but I wouldn't say drastic. An 8-pin with good components can handle over 500 watts at 12 volts. Just modernizing gives you most of the possible benefit.