A universal adapter that has any amount of safeguards for such a niche market would never get off the ground as they could never get enough volume to enjoy economies of scale. What you are hoping for would be severely constrained by the price difference of OCP and PCI-E versions. As the cheap pin to pin adapters become more prevalent, it would further reduce the price difference between the versions, basically eliminating the opportunity for universal adapters.
Regarding the fate of niche shops like Heathkit and Radio Shack, I think those were more impacted by the Internet and more specifically the Amazon juggernaut. Look at the entire retail sector to see the devastation over the past two decades. Yes, many jobs and businesses have gone away, but that has been roughly balanced with access to cheaper products delivered to your door.
True that such an adapter might not get off the ground in an effort to keep the price difference between OCP and PCIe enough to warrant the cost and effort. If pin adapters were sold and marketed properly, I could see even a reputable company making them. But all this seems to be for a short lived window, aka a 'quick buck scheme'. Like the old lga771 mods to use in lga775 sockets because those processor were cheaper. Today it's just foolishness as will probably be the case once the OCP and PCIe versions of these cards fall to the bottom of the bathtub curve.
Yes, but the Internet has been completely flooded by the 'cheap goods' that are dumped in the market by unscrupulous 'players' in the market who don't want to play in the market--they want to destroy it and make it their own. Consumers think they got cheaper prices and better service, but I don't think high defect rates and non-existent customer service is a good thing, and the prices haven't really dropped that much on industries that have been monopolized (have you seen steel and lumber rates lately?).
Amazon and other marketplaces as well as the sellers in them basically cheated when competing against brick and mortar stores by not collecting sales tax. Technically the buyer of such products should have filed use tax in their jurisdiction, but until just the last few years taxing officials didn't have a way to deal with all that. In the meantime, traditional businesses with proper employees and infrastructure were undercut by as much as 15% by these on-line cheaters walled behind marketplace sites that were skipping out on sales tax. And that is without even factoring in the 'dirty' practices (for lack of a better term) in overseas manufacturing that drives cost down even further. It was an environment that should never existed from day one, and finally was brought in line after so many years of 'wild wild west'. If it had existed from day one, I think a lot more companies would be around as they would have had time to pivot as necessary to deal with the new competition, and the new competition would have had to figure out how to compete at scale. Instead, today's product retailers are already at a disadvantage before they even attempt to open their doors.
And now after Amazon's reputation of a horrible place to work is known as well as their products and services, there are full video ads to show how great they as a place to work as they attempt to reverse their reputation and become a better company--but no one is asking, "Where is all the money going to come to make these changes?" All this penny-wise pound-foolish get-rich-quick fast-buck business is unsustainable, and it only separates the haves and have-nots even further. Add in the 2050 initiatives by one nation state that would like to see everyone in the entire world become subsurvient, and there's a lot more to lose than the slight gain of a cheaper price and home delivery...
