Actually, the few that still get produced are vastly inferior to the 2000s ones via a SATA plug. We are losing the facilities and knowledge, tolerances are far worse now.
Btw, i've discovered redumper (from the Redump disc-preservation initiative) if makemkv doesn't suffice anymore. The old SATA ones chugged along like nothing, while the new-ish ones errored here and there, requiring long correcting runs. All in all, better get some old notebooks than a new USB drive, if you want to go get ripping.