Yet I don’t trust any SD*.
They always seem to corrupt, and I feel like the connector is not reliable enough. I’d rather not have such a thing directly connected to the bus
That's entirely a function of NAND quality and controller sophistication. Why would a different form factor make a difference here?
Also, for an apples to apples comparison, you'd have to compare this new standard to microSD Express cards, not regular ones.
> I feel like the connector is not reliable enough.
Have you actually had a connector wear out? I'm not the biggest fan of the spring loading myself (I've had devices catapult microSD cards into the next room in the past!), but it seems pretty reliable in terms of actually making and keeping a connection to me.
Same applies to SSD drives, there are consumer drives that have colorful boxes with claims like speed or size, and there are specialized SSD drives based on MLC chips that are still available here and there