99% of the time I don’t need a full pcie4/5 x4 speed. I’d be happy with like one pcie4 x4 m.2 slot and then a bunch of x1 slots. That to me would be a suitable replacement for 2.5" drives currently

SATA drives ain’t dead

Who was saying that they were?

Rotational drive demand is way up due to AI, which is why prices are way up, and for rotational drives, the SATA interface is just fine.

EDIT:

https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/internal-hard-drive/

Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA 16 TB (Average price in USD over last 18 months)

They still make the most sense for bulk storage, no? I have one m.2 drive in my desktop and 5 2.5”