Probably 80% of those are hack solutions intended to prolong the service life of weird embedded/industrial x86 systems.
If you go far enough down the rabbit hole of weird embedded system component makers, and system integrators (mostly Taiwan based) you'll find all sorts of weird stuff. The sort of pieces you'd use to build a x86 system running a complicated thing in a factory or industrial process, or a kiosk... Armored stainless steel keyboards, fanless systems with big heatsinks built into the chassis, and so forth.
> although if you really want to live the Real Life, you might want to consider... m.2 CANBUS!
> Have you ever wanted to interface with the network running your car from an m.2 slot? if so, go to jail. but not before buying this!
CAN bus is used everywhere in industrial and embedded systems, not just cars. Lots of PLCs, servo cards, networked sensors use it, you need low latency to get the task done, and you usually prefer a small-form-factor fanless DIN-rail mount PC in a control cabinet, so full-size PCIe cards or USB adapters are no-go. M.2 it is! Likewise with the industrial USB-C and waterproof HDMI down thread; positive locking connectors don't usually go with modern touchscreens.
I think you'd see a lot of these connectors and adapters if you worked maintenance in (or just got a tour through) a local manufacturing facility.
If you dig through the twitter history of the account linked to (one of the best on twitter, I might add) you will find many examples of exactly this type of industrial hardware.
I've got a weird SCSI to sdcard interface, I think it was initially developed for an 80s era sampler (sampling for music). But it works great in my Macintosh SE/30.
If you go far enough down the rabbit hole of weird embedded system component makers, and system integrators (mostly Taiwan based) you'll find all sorts of weird stuff. The sort of pieces you'd use to build a x86 system running a complicated thing in a factory or industrial process, or a kiosk... Armored stainless steel keyboards, fanless systems with big heatsinks built into the chassis, and so forth.