I think the tradeoff would be it simply looks stellar and has probably great cooling for the given noise it makes. Apple seems to put a premium on their design

I think the tradeoff would be it simply looks stellar and has probably great cooling for the given noise it makes. Apple seems to put a premium on their designs in these areas, and their customers seem to agree. For things like audio production, having a quiet PC may be super important, and this seems like a market Apple plays well in. Everything is a tradeoff, it was just surprising to me that each of those external ports is their own little PCB with flex cables to the motherboard and one or more screws each. Most other PC manufacturers would likely make a case that enables putting all of those ports directly soldered to the motherboard, with a slightly worse exterior design appearance.