because a PCIe card reader + fast large SD card might be better performance than a similarly-priced SSD
@Felthry they probably do
people don't tend to realize that there's a little computer inside of SD cards to do all kinds of fancy stuff
@monorail you can do lots of neat stuff when you have enough money for custom silicon
@monorail i don't know if it'd count as a computer really, since it isn't programmable or general-purpose afawk
@Felthry I've definitely seen someone get arbitrary code on one
@monorail @Felthry I think this is it https://youtu.be/r3GDPwIuRKI
though i don't know if sd card controllers do fancy stuff like wear leveling