This whole thread seems somewhat deragatory, and I don't see how it's necessary or valuable for calling out the AC folks for "hating" SD cards. It's not like AC makes or sells phones, so weather they do or don't like SD card support is irrelevant. What I do see as relevant - is that AC and staff (particularly Jerry) has done a good job isolating the facts and putting them out into logical, practical guides and articles that explain how and why decsions were made with regard to SD card support - can't fault the man for having a (somewhat) objective opinion on the matter.
That said, why on earth would Samsung ever consider making a device without an SD Card slot - they won. They won when Google tried to elliminate them, and they (Samsung) kept selling them (and with a factor of 10-15:1 to other IHV's), and got to thumb their nose at the other IHV's who didn't follow suit - thank god some of them (HTC) are seeing the light and that almighty Google's word isn't the cure all be all.
Never forget, Google's a search company - it's in their "greater" best interest to push you to the cloud. But it's also an entity that views the world in the 5-10 year plan mode. 10 years from now, connectivity may not matter, data speeds may be of such quality that streaming huge chunks of data would be possible and practical, data caps and plan allowance may be a thing of the past, and IHV's may figure out a way not to lube you up and run you backwards through a cornfield for 16gb of onboard memory (as I'm currently paying a variance of $50-$100 between 16/32gb opions) - and Google views the world through the lens of "perfect tech" sense. In the case that all those things are true - SD cards are no longer necessary, but that's just not the world we live in - and under current conditions - there's no clear path for us there. So god help us, Samsung came to the rescue and provided a practical solution (while lacking certain security safety nets in it's original implementation) - that they are working hand in hand to make sure that the SD card is both usable and safe is very encouraging.
And that's another thing - the SD card, from my perspective, is far more useful than it's been in the past for Google Services. I can store and cache media from the Google applications on my SD card now - I didnt' have access to do this before. When you look at my big data offenders on my unlimited plan - it's Google Play movies, and Google Play Music - both now have really good local storage options that didn't exist before. It's taken a pretty decent amount of work to get there (for both Google and Samsung) so I just don't see it "tossed out with the bath water." so to speak!
Jack