Really, it sounds like the title should be “FYI - Apple doesn’t support SMART over USB”. Or “Apple’s USB mass storage driver is incomplete — PLEASEFIX.” I’d be

Really, it sounds like the title should be “FYI - Apple doesn’t support SMART over USB”. Or “Apple’s USB mass storage driver is incomplete — PLEASEFIX.” I’d be interested to know the answer. But given that the original solution was to use a custom kernel extension, I’m more inclined to believe that the answer is — Apple didn’t think anyone would need it.