They saw Apple get away with it and tried to do the same.
no matter how bad the idea, there’s always someone waiting to turn Apple’s bad idea into a poorly implemented, even worse idea
I've had a Fujitsu (if I remember correctly) drive many many years ago that had a hardware bug that would cause an IC on it to spontaneously flash fire and die.
It was a known flaw. They got away with it too.
There will probably be a class action lawsuit where everyone that bought one gets a $20 coupon towards a new WD product, and the lawyers make millions.