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The most interesting update in the world of vintage Macintosh is probably the new Tiny SCSI Emulator. It sort of challenges the SCSI2SD as the performance crown for vintage Macs. It is also easier to hand-assemble, and it promises future functionality such as the ability to use SCSI for Ethernet and video output connections, which was functionality provided by real SCSI peripherals that have existed.
Naturally, there's a discussion going on about this, but much of the basis of the discussion appears to be based on how smug people can be. The original post was pretty bad even for Ye Olde Computer Forum, basically decrying the use of the SCSI2SD as being unmanly in a world where you, for some reason should be using old mechanical hard disks with SCSI based computers. Never mind the fact that it is essentially impossible to rebuild or meaningfully refresh mechanical hard disks, and that as the oldest 68k Macs are now over than 20 years old, finding machines with working disks is getting increasingly difficult.
A few years ago, a trend was to adapt fast, modern server hard disks for use in 68k Macs. The real problems with this are that the supply of those disks isn't unlimited, and that the Mac community isn't the only one searching for a modern type of disk or better storage solution. Various UNIX computers use those disks too, and those systems generally have a better capability to cool and use disks like this (and similarly, are very poorly served by traditionally low performance solutions such as the SCSI2SD.) Even pretty bad SCSI systems like the late Netburst based Xeon workstations and servers can use a lot more disk performance than an SCSI2SD—At least as it stands today, it is likely to get better, and the SCSI2SD v6 is said to be much better.
The other component of the discussion was essentially that there can be no vintage Mac without physical repair skills. It's an unfortunate discussion to have to have, because although I know a lot about Macs and I've got a lot of context on the history of the platform and the history of the community. Back in the day, when most of these computers were entering their second lives, my use for them was as my main computer. Today, as all of them are over 20 years old, my main use is pretty different. I'm doing fewer "modern" Internet applications and I'm using more pro applications and doing more things I wanted to get into when I had my older Macs, but couldn't for different things.
There are different reasons to use these computers, and not everybody is at the same skill level, both with Macs and with physical electronics tasks such as soldering or doing board level diagnosis as far as what particular chip it was that failed in a situation with particular symptoms. The problems with this are that it's exceedingly exclusionary and that it suggests that people shouldn't be able to enter the hobby without some way to gain skills they may not be able to get without first joining the hobby. The other problem is it excludes people for whom learning those skills doesn't make sense. I think there's a presumption among people that everybody will find soldering to be fun, because they do. I don't want to exaggerate here, but I just don't think this is true. If the knowledge and rate of learning of the people who show up about basic concepts of the platform is any indication, I'm not expecting many of the literal children to be able to pick up soldering very quickly, plus they're literally children so there's often the of being able to get supplies. At the other end of the spectrum is people who just don't have the time, plus other reasons why someone might not be able to do a bunch of soldering.
The trouble is that it's hard to deny that soldering is a valuable skill, and so because it's valuable, people extend that to mean that it's somehow mandatory. I'm sure everybody does this to a certain extent. It's a side-effect of the fact that we're all around for different reasons, and there is a correlation between people who place a high importance on soldering skills and people who happen to be good at it, either because they are more interested in electronics than computers or because they have enough vintage computing hobbies that they've entered one where it's inescapable.
But that doesn't help those of us with homes small enough we can't set up a soldering station, or who just never have the time or energy to do it, or who don't have the physical dexterity for it, and so on.
The SCSI2SD sort of ends up being a proxy for the conceit that everybody should have soldering skills. You can't hand-solder a SCSI2SD yourself, because it is assembled using a methodology that requires special skills, and buying an SCSI2SD requires the admission that existing storage technology and the availability and complexity of disks and adapters meant it was more worthwhile to replace it entirely with a device that accepts SD cards. I can see why it might not be ideal to admit that you've reached the end of a traditional solution. The other comment about the SCSI2SD was that it's expensive. It's more than $0 but it's not as expensive as many people think. The price has been coming down steadily over the years.