10gbps and 20gbps USB M.2 enclosures are dirt cheap. I use one (with a 1TB SSD inside) as a flash drive. You can also buy USB SSDs that are smaller than M.2 enc

10gbps and 20gbps USB M.2 enclosures are dirt cheap. I use one (with a 1TB SSD inside) as a flash drive. You can also buy USB SSDs that are smaller than M.2 enclosures but have the full SSD feature set (SMART data, TRIM, etc) just like enclosures. It's not as fast as a USB-C to USB-C cable that can do 40gbps with IP-over-thunderbolt, but good enough for most use cases.