Quite right, as i said it's about cheapness of manufacture for carbon which has unfortunately migrated and become a trend for other frame materials.
It also essentially puts a lot of work beyond the competence/confidence of home mechanics because as you say brakes need to be bled etc. The idea that this is a great thing for adventure bikes when you might need to fix something out in middle of nowhere is just fanciful too. I've seen crank axles eaten through to the point of failure by poorly routed cables contacting them. And you don't even know til it's too late. Yeesh.
I am designing a cx/gravel bike with a local framebuilder that we may put into small batch production. The first thing we both said is "external cables!" - not even in housings for as much as we can get away with.
It also essentially puts a lot of work beyond the competence/confidence of home mechanics because as you say brakes need to be bled etc. The idea that this is a great thing for adventure bikes when you might need to fix something out in middle of nowhere is just fanciful too. I've seen crank axles eaten through to the point of failure by poorly routed cables contacting them. And you don't even know til it's too late. Yeesh.
I am designing a cx/gravel bike with a local framebuilder that we may put into small batch production. The first thing we both said is "external cables!" - not even in housings for as much as we can get away with.