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In fairness, the margins for manufacturers on most kit is horrendous, especially when you factor support and repairs etc.
Balanced outs are compromised as there's simply not enough space (everything has to be in these ty factors so hipsters can set them up in their tiny apartments) and to do it right, costs decent money, something that again is really only appreciated by real pros, and a lot of people buying these boxes are "dabblers" at best and wouldn't know +4 or -10 if it rogered them.
USb is the easier way to go becuase there so much less to go wrong. In terms of things breaking, TRS are always the first thing that get battered becuase people plug shit in and out and don't understand the need for patch bays.
Shoving a jack in 100 times is going to break the <1mm wide contacts in that thing whereas a USB port can take more of a kicking, not to mention, the economy of scale is so low now that throwing is a cheap DAC with a USB circuit board costs less than 8 or 12 decent TRS sockets.
As for the PSU being outside, i don't have a problem with this' transformers are bulky by nature and they love to interfere with PCB's so there's a lot of design constraints trying to put them inside a low cost box. High end equipment? No excuse.
I too am sick of the analog fart boxes; The new Korg Electribes were surprisingly well built (metal chassis, nice pads/buttons etc) although they made some really weird design choices when it came to actually programming the damned thing.
This shit comes in waves. It's all boutique vintage throwback boxes now, it'll probably swing to more complete synths and workstations again.
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