Google is gambling on that trade-off getting them more Enterprise attention. The SD card's vulnerability to theft and lack of user controls was a major stumbling block for serious Enterprise adoption. It was just too easy for a rival to remove an SD card, replace it with a malware infected card, or copy the data off an SD card and replace it, or just steal it. Data could be copied from computers with ease with SD cards in SD card readers, transferred to Phones, and then stolen direct from servers. Not good. Removing the capability obviates that potential.
In a device as small and with as little memory as a phone or tablet, the tradeoff should have been addressed by simply marketing cardless units to businesses where security outweighs performance needs.
One size fits all crippling of their technology abdicates marketshare.
I never said there was no reason for what they did. I pointed out that power users will not tolerate it if there are other options. Intel is are out to deliver as big an example of other options as you can get: the full windows system.
Were I in manufacturing, I would be looking to build dyes capable of cranking out high performance 500gb to 2tb microSD cards because I think there is about to be an expanding market for them even if priced exorbitantly.