Yeah i do also think, thunderbolt 5 comes with 64GBit/s for PCI-E 4.0. But it is still no “nativ” PCI-E and for now it seems thunderbolt is not good in handling it. So im not really sure, if they really can fix that.
And still oculink 8i would (already now) still offer double bandwith of that.
But as i said, im not sure if it would just be better to make a direct PCI-E 4.0 x16 Port (with 8 electrical lanes). So i don’t know, what on a engineering side is easier. But probably it would also be more difficult to handle for consumer with these short and wide riser cable. On the other side it would maybe be a better signal, but i have no clue.
But i really don’t think framework will come up with PCI-E 5.0 in the next 2 years. Or do you think so?
Only because you can build your laptop (diy edition) and change parts of it, does not mean, you can design your own pcb. So i would say 90% of framework community (or more) can not be design a PCB nor would they ever be able to.
So that’s why people ask for official support.
And to be said: Not everyone lives in a country, where you have access to some of these PCB-makers (or it will be a expensiv shipping cost). And also it will not be easy to sell several PCBs, because you have to order a lot of pieces. Not all lives in a country, where there are a lot of Framework users or they live in countries, where shipping-costs are high.
So what you describe is maybe “easy” for people, who are building their own PCB, but thats far from normal. It’s like the difference between playing lego and producing your own lego blocks. Only because you can assemble parts, does not mean you can made your own parts.
I personally think designing a pcb is way more difficult for an average person, than drilling a little hole somewhere.
But let’s go back to topic. If you have a real plan to design a PCB, share it, but just to say "it’s actually quite easy " does not help anyone.