[avian]

> I don't know why it became such a piece of breaking news.

Popular buzzword (Raspberry Pi), surprising unexpected outcome (most consumer electronics people are familiar with don’t react to light), manufactured outrage/schadenfreude (look how they screwed this up!)

[segfaultbuserr]

> Popular buzzword + Surprising unexpected outcome

Good analysis. In both cases, I see the popular press reports them in personified language, "Xenon Death Flash, or Why the Raspberry Pi 2 is Camera Shy", and "Why the new iPhone is Allergic to Helium". If we replace "Raspberry Pi 2" with "semiconductor p&n junctions", and replace "new iPhone" with "MEMS oscillators", it probably won't be news anymore.

> manufactured outrage/schadenfreude

An interesting case as well. I see both incidents as undesirable side-effects that better to be prevented, but I don't think they are major design flaws.

[Dylan16807]

Your version doesn't just remove any personification, it gets rid of the entire concept that these are exposed parts on consumer devices causing them to fail.

So sure, that version would get no notice.