It looks Asus for some reason abandoned it's Vertical M.2 connector used before:

located in the bottom right corner of the mobo:
https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-maximus … -model/gallery/

located next to ATX connector:
https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/r … -model/gallery/

Vertical M.2 SSD installation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCSwswg37g

it's interesting it didn't ended up with something like this:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q270%20Pro%20 … C+/index.pl.asp
or this:
https://xprimeshop.net/image/cache/catalog/ch … 7-1000x1000.jpg
https://xprimeshop.net/intel/chia_XCH_mining-farming_rig

would be so much easier to manage ssds when not having to remove cpu heatsink or gpu to just switch ssd

I guess to many people loosing bracket and asking to send it for free.
and maybe to fragile, easy to break.