Quick upgrade for easy to plug and unplug end effectors/toolheads. Activity/status LED are also moved from the back of the printer to the top and some more voltage regulation to provide additional voltage rails.
While a nice connector adds significant cost it is also a big value add for certain 3D-printer. I think more manefacturer should consider tiny details like this when designing their product.
Strain relief isn’t installed on this tool for reasons …
Rep Rap got started in 2005 and their 1.0 design was released in 2008. This (eventually) spawned the OG Prusa i3, which launched in 2016. I’m not sure that FDM has advanced at ton since then, and I say that as a recent Voron 2.4 builder. Quality of life, absolutely. Tech? It seems more incremental/evolutionary than revolutionary. I’m sure multi-extruder will become better implemented over the next few years, but I’m not sure how far it will wind up going. It doesn’t seem like there’s going to be an elegant solution, which largely just leaves complicated solutions.