I'm suspecting it's really less than half a dozen people at NVIDIA, like guys in purchasing division or PCB designers not wanting to make a drastic parts/footprint change. M8 SMD lug terminal in a gamer accessory is crazy, but not rocket science.
That's what I wondered, you may not understand all the players. I believe the PCI standard specifies this Molex connector. Somewhere between what Nvidia ships and the power supply itself, that standard is the only common connection.
No, NVIDIA's use of the connector and first reports of melting predates the spec. They were never had hands tied to use it.
Gaming GPUs are having sagging problems for years too, and little is done to solve it. The cards are bending in their own weight. They're not products of proper engineering.
