I know that there are solutions (I use KDE, so it works differently there). The point I am trying to make is that UNIX device files were never designed to deal

I know that there are solutions (I use KDE, so it works differently there). The point I am trying to make is that UNIX device files were never designed to deal with the dynamic hardware configuration we see today, especially on laptops with periphery gerting plugged in and yanked periodically. And some of the solutions, like gvfs, are overly complex user space workarounds. A system that accounts for these dynamic usage patterns would have to look differently. But it does by no means have to be ugly code. In fact, it would probably be much simpler and more elegant than the current Linux desktop user space.