Bill in Co wrote:

That is one weird looking connector. It will be interesting to see if this
ever becomes mainstream. I think I'd prefer separate connectors, but maybe
I'm being conservative and old fashioned. I think the eSata ones were a bit
(slightly) flimsy at it is, however.

The original ESATA intention was metal to metal contact
and a 5000 cycle rating. The same rating as USB metal connectors.

The internal SATA connector system, is plastic and
the rating is 50 cycles. Although my tests in the
Test machine (swapping drives all the time), is now
many times over that figure. Those connector ratings
are probably a "guaranteed minimum", but I don't know
what "mis-mated" conditions they apply to test that
out.

The usage of metal barrels or surfaces for capture,
makes a big difference to the spec number.

Paul