And they themselves said that it's not a good idea, it simply was a time of desperation. They're not shucking externals now, now that proper drives are available.

Also they have a lot more tolerance for disk failure than almost anyone.

They did but with 3.5" drives which were not USB specific. This is done to save space and noone cares for space with a 3.5" drive. If you ship with a converter board it is impossible to make it this small.