That may be due to other factors. I will be up front that I don’t have a lot of specifics, but I do know this: in retro computing, SD is hard to implement as a replacement for old-school disks because it means a lot of overhead. For that reason, Compact Flash is still the preferred format for a lot of products aimed at that space.

Perhaps that is at play here, because increased overhead should also equal a reduction in battery life (modulo the spinning disk).