I read a lot about how the USB-A cards cause additional power-draw even when no device is plugged in so I modified a card so it only uses power when a device is plugged into its USB-A port.
The Card signals to the main board that it is plugged in by having a 5.1k resistor pull-down to GND.
I started my mod by first isolating the shield of the USB-A socket by de-soldering the 4 tabs. This will isolate it from GND unless a shielded USB plug is inserted.
The next step is to remove the black 5.1K resistor. If you want you can just lift one side of it but it seemed to me like it was glued to the board before soldering so just lifting it will probably be hard. I replaced it with a large SMD resistor but the card has lots of spare space inside. You could even use a small through-hole resistor if you have nothing else.
I attached the resistor directly to one corner of the shield then ran a short piece of magnet wire to the CC pad the original resistor was soldered to. this concludes the electrical part. the next step is to mount the 4 tabs isolated from GND - I did that by cutting 2 pieces of perfboard and halving it so it became very thin. I glued these 2 pieces under the 4 tabs then soldered the tabs in place.
Done - your card can now be left in permanently without drawing extra power.
There is one downside to this mod: devices without shielding will not work anymore - that means a lot of stuff manufactured before the year 2000 or so but more relevantly it means that some shield-less yubikeys and drives will not work.
Also as you can see in the pictures I cut the top and bottom copper - you do not need to do that since it was an unsuccessful attempt to easily isolate the shield. The PCB actually has 3 Layers and the center Layer is GND so cutting it is impossible without completely cutting the board.