Why are PC Connectors and Power Supplies still relatively complicated?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

In the advent of USB connectors and such, why do we still have the large clips from the PSU to motherboards?

And some PSUs that claim to be modular but aren't quite, molex connectors and such?  Or standardising connectors so instead of 3-pins here and 4-pins there, it's just USB-C or something similar.

It seems that in 10/20 years, not much has really changed in this regard.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Your post is also somewhat hard to follow...tossing in USB/USB-C with remarks about PSU cabling.

 

tl;dr - Backwards compatibility (Molex, etc) / compatibility standard.  Fully modular PSUs exist and you never have to use connections you don't need (aside from an extra SATA connector or 2 along the ribbon).  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  OEMs (like Dell, HP) are terrible and do not follow ATX standards, basically leading to e-waste.

 

Look up ATX12VO (though I'm unsure if it'll hit system builders anytime soon).