> And I'd expect it to be more common on the higher end drives where someone might intentionally choose SMR to get more space, as opposed to the <=8TB market where SMR is a cost saving they don't want anyone to notice.
Yeah, "don't want anyone to notice" is probably a big factor, and in fairness the drive I mentioned was of the surprise SMR scandal era. (8TB was decently large then though I think.)
I guess fundamentally the hidden complexity of the firmware managing the storage also applies to SSD, but I think they've got more wiggle room there due to the inherent better performance of the media, and for whatever reason the average firmware quality appears better IMHO, with some notable exceptions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32031243
Yeah, "don't want anyone to notice" is probably a big factor, and in fairness the drive I mentioned was of the surprise SMR scandal era. (8TB was decently large then though I think.)
I guess fundamentally the hidden complexity of the firmware managing the storage also applies to SSD, but I think they've got more wiggle room there due to the inherent better performance of the media, and for whatever reason the average firmware quality appears better IMHO, with some notable exceptions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32031243