I'll say that these are no longer "Pro" devices.
“Pro” users will be more inclined to have a workflow to mitigate hardware failure.
This just something "you don't need" because they would rather shave another millimeter of the width, for the larger and more lucrative fashion-focused part of their customerbase.
The T2 chip on the logic board contains the decryption key for the SSD. Therefore, if the logic board breaks (and thus the T2), the data are irrecoverable.
The design choice was either software encryption and data exfiltration port or hardware encryption and no port. They chose to add hardware encryption, so no port.
Sure Apple makes decision that can affect the outcome in this specific case, but other things happen to laptops (physical damage, loss, direct disk failure etc.).
I would blame a pro user with valuable info for not backing/replicating it in case the laptop dies. Actually I am not even sure the laptop could go to repair with the data still salvageable in companies with strict security protocols.
That is more convenient than having to move to another PC, install the OS, all the software that you need, copy the data from somewhere, a procedure that takes a couple of hours.
And of course with a normal computer when you send your PC to service you can take out the SSD so the service personal cannot see your private data and so you can continue to work with another computer while you wait for the other to be repaired.