I would actually contend that the geeks that high end boards are marketed to are the MOST likely to make use of legacy connections.
HUH?!?
Yeah. It's the geeks that know to use a floppy to flash your bios-- because you're more likely to brick a motherboard with those windows utilities than you are to update your bios.
It's the geeks that have several drawers full of old PATA devices that they're going to call on for some project or experiment. A spare drive to mess with Linux or OS X86. An extra CD burner for when they're ripping their cd collection to a new format-- again.
It's the geeks that are providing tech support for their extended family and friends and need legacy connections to run diagnostics or test legacy hardware on a different box.
The exception here may be the modem. Geeks usually find broadband like a shark finds a meal. But there are plenty of legitimate reasons to include a modem-- especially on a laptop.
Remember also that motherboards are usually sold world-wide. Not every country-- or even every part in the US-- has broadband connectivity as abundantly as we city folk enjoy.
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