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Dude, a water loop with a few mini blocks for multiple sticks will easily cost you less than a single of these sticks. These aren't just USB sticks... Grin

(compare mining stick price to usb stick price, maybe you don't know typical stickminer prices? Huh

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Buy one standard size waterblock or a lot smaller with each time pipes connections can give you more issue than one big.
Yes this stick have a cost but with a pod you trash all each time because nothing are reusable and performance increase over time here it's just the "chip" and keep other parts.

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Why not try it? Get a $5 USB-A extension cord, rip out the power leads, scrape some solder mask on the back (front) side of the miner (the side where it has the heatsink on), and solder a barrel jack or something to the large ground and VDD planes. Make sure to glue it in place to prevent risk of pad tearing. Or maybe solder thick wires and somehow attach the barrel jack to something more stable like the heatsink itself.
This would be a reversible (even though not pretty) mod.
It seems the sticks are limited to 850MHz; I am on 500MHz right now and around 2.6A, so I suspect for running 850 you will really need more than 3A, more like 5A (25W) or something, so it would definitely be a cool PoC with actual benefit.

No you need to buy usb connector to solder yourself if you want do that. And I not speak about a barrel jack just some mm copper pad on the usb stick nothing big and no components to add.
Low voltage has a lot of losses on small section cables.

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They're not made for 500mA. They need at least 2.4A, which some off-the-shelf hubs do provide (within USB spec), but 3A-capable mining hubs are preferred (look in this thread; there is sidehack's own hub and another one whose name I forgot - it's what was used in the recently found block by someone with 9 Compac F's).

That's the official USB specification : Multi-lane SuperSpeed (USB 3.2 Gen 2) device 1.5 A[d] 5 V 7.5 W
2.4-3A isn't within specifications need an USBC connector for these type of power delivery and it's add a huge layer of complexity.
It's why all usb devices USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 consuming more power than about 0.9-1.5A have an external power supply connector for stay within standard.
A direct copper cable on a copper pad are in all cases better for keep voltage than a USB connector for this type of consumption.

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I don't get your point. What do you want to be swappable? You talked about the cooling system (watercooling). I don't get why you can't just take off the $2 heatsink that they come with and add your own cooling solution. It's basically 'swap-able' already right now in that sense.

You have a certain number of stick aligned with your cooling/power supply/cable/custom design but in 2/3/5 years where are too weak you trash all these stick and replace them without change anything just solder the 2 wires on the new stick but keep all other part forever. Each part are independent and can be replaced but designed for your power available. Change nothing if you have 50W/100W/1000W solar panel power and can consume exactly what is available and you can even easily control each stick with relays.