Are PCIe cards just dongles in another form factor? Is it a question of how much of the peripheral's surface area is visible from the outside? Or is it the difficulty of insertion/removal that separates expansion cards from dongles?
For me it's the dangling that makes the dongle a dongle.
That's a disingenuous comparison. PCIe is not USB-C. You are comparing apples to oranges.
The Framework laptop expansion cards are all USB-C dongles in a different form factor. It's purely an esthetic choice. You don't like the dangle. Thats a valid opinion. I have a USB-C hub that handles all the connections I need in a dongle-dangle.
The only real objective benefit of it, IMO, (and this is HUGE) is the repairability. I am a huge fan of that, and hope that other makes would step up (or be forced to step up) and make the same kind of changes.
An expansion card that is flush with the rest of the laptop frame compared to a dongle that dangles from the side is absolutely not just an aesthetic difference. Expansion cards don't need to be disconnected and reconnected whenever you move the laptop. Dongles do. You can't put a laptop with four dongles hanging off of it into a bag.
The distinction between USB-C and PCIe, on the other hand, is meaningless for most peripherals.
An imaginary handheld AM radio is more similar to a handheld FM radio than the handheld FM radio is to a desktop FM radio, from the user's perspective. You could say that "comparing AM to FM is apples to oranges", but the user wouldn't care as much as they care about how they actually interact with the thing.
IMO it's a big mistake that the RJ45 adapter sticks out, because the laptop is not thick enough... There is no good reason for that.. also, I'd like batteries with cylindrical cells.
If you prefer, you can glue them into place and then they're just fixed, unchangeable ports. That would be incredibly silly to do, but if you're so against the idea of something that can be swapped out...
Is your point that dongles are bad and therefore these are bad? If so, can you explain what it is you think is bad about dongles, and how this different form factor doesn't fix those issues?
If that's not your point, then what is your point? My issue with dongle-based connections is generally 2 fold: dongles are an awkward thing to have/carry around and having dongle-based connectors usually means you only have 1-2 connectors total. Neither of those issues applies in this case, so to whatever extent they can be considered dongles, they also aren't a problem in my mind.
Are PCIe cards just dongles in another form factor? Is it a question of how much of the peripheral's surface area is visible from the outside? Or is it the difficulty of insertion/removal that separates expansion cards from dongles?
For me it's the dangling that makes the dongle a dongle.