what if you want to use the LCD screen or press one of the utility buttons on the keyboard? This option would be less flexible for those types of functions. have it horizontal like a laptop dock makes more sense to me.
It's quite easy to apply uneven force to such multi-pronged adapter. This could lead to exerting torque on the deepest ports on two axes. As the required force varies along the connector strip, I can imagine it's easy to slip if you push from the wrong point at the wrong phase of the insertion. It's also a somewhat slow solution compared to one that does the aligning for you. Removing such a connector strip without exerting torque is also an exercise in itself.
Still can't see a big difference, it is still possible that the "(male)port cage" isn't inserted with the same speed/"path gain" on both ends. At least your solutions does not need any changes to the case (which already may not be possible anymore) but comes with a moving part that is a potentional point of failure
This would defeat the purpose of a dock.
The main thing to consider is port/plug alignment on all six degrees of freedom on the entire movement range. Securing pyra to the dock and having the ports connected by four points to it (further enforced by the port block of the back plate going into the dock itself) restricts all degrees of freedom except for the Y axis (movement axis of the back plate). If you press one side of the back plate and not the other, it may not go as easily (because of lever), but you can't make the other side go faster, because that would imply torque coming from the back plate rotating around Z axis (up/down), which is restricted by the bars. The bars are long enough inside the base part that they shouldn't be able to turn at all (maybe 0.01° at most).
The problem is, in your (funny) analogy I'm actually the crane, not a person - so don't see where this would help alot.As an analogue, consider four 4m long iron pipes with 15cm inner radius going into the earth in a 4m x 1m rectangular formation, much like the guide rod holes in the pyra dock. Then consider four 5m long iron rods with 14.990cm radius put into the pipes. Now weld a 25cm thick 4.2m x 1.2m iron sheet on top of the rods. Next put a 80cm long iron rod with 1cm diameter inside a soda bottle at least 20cm tall, place both under the iron sheet and weld the iron rod under the sheet. Position the bottle so the hanging iron rod does not touch it. Now try to make the hanging iron rod touch the bottle by lifting one side of the iron sheet faster than the other. With a crane, since it weighs a lot.
The rods and the iron pipes will take all the lever force you exert before you can turn the small rod almost at all.
While the idea to make this a "two in one" kind of thing is generally appealing, I personally would not want such a solution.
The point is that the guide rods absorb any torque before any relevant twisting (resulting in uneven force) can occur. The structure just needs to be rigid enough with small tolerances for the guide rod holes. I exaggerated the materials and dimensions for the analogue on purpose so it would be evident the structure can't twist any relevant amounts, so the connectors are always inserted straight and with the combined resistance of all of them. They can't go faster in the connectors that have less resistance, because the structure won't let them.
And my point is that those guiding rods have to connect to a much weaker material (the "port frame"), which will give you "wiggle room"
I have no idea on the engineering side of how to make the rod attachment to the back plate as sturdy as possible. I don't think the dock base part is an issue since the rods have so much more contact area there, spreading the load on a larger area. I made the back plate in the renders quite a hunk of plastic to both have room to house electronics and give a good anchoring depth for the rods.
It comes free with the SoC and will be availible with a USB/eSata combo port on the Pyra itself.
