This is like when people complain about the PCE save system.
What DID have an AV out, even as an option (which, via Booster, it was) in 1987?
Not allowing the user to move individual save files to and from the Tennokoe Bank is stupidity that transcends any time-period.
I mean, it's not the end of the world. If you need to backup a save, you can. Swapping entire memories back and forth is far from an insurmountable challenge. It's not a broken system. Then again, unlike the single controller port or whatever, there is no justification for the inconvenience. It's just bad design.
Also, that they didn't have the foresight to build support for save-memory expansions like the MB128 into at least the 3.0 bios is disappointing. PCE mag writers were worried about the size of the internal memory even in 1989. Sega knew to add bios support for expansion memory into the Mega CD in 1991, so what's NEC/Hudson's excuse? Maybe they didn't think controller-port expansions would be viable at the time, I don't know.
Anyway, if I were introducing the PCE hardware to someone, I'd generally describe it as pretty smartly put together: easy to program, easy to play, compact size, reliable, good capabilities for the time, and the CD expansion is undeniably cool...but the extra save-memory options are so dumb that it's usually better to play only a couple of CD games at a time, then delete your internal-memory saves to make room for the next ones.
If anyone ever makes a program for the Turbo Everdrive that lets you swap individual save files, nobody who has one will touch their Tennokoe Banks or MB128s again.
------------------------
Back on topic, I had once read on a Japanese forum or blog (don't remember which) that part of the reason why the Core II, Duo and PC-FX had relatively high price-tags is that Hudson got all of the software royalties and NEC had to profit on the hardware alone. Either the information was incorrect, the contract conditions changed at some point, or perhaps it's just that NEC's share of the royalties was very small. I'll see what I can find about this later.
EDIT: According to a book called "Game System Wars 1997: Sony, Sega, Bandai, Nintendo" (amazon link), the software royalties went to Hudson. It would be interesting if this were incorrect, because a lot of Japanese gamers on the internet seem to believe it. It's easy to find lots of posts saying so.
An interesting quote from Hudson executive Hiroshi Kudo upon being asked whether the PCE was a success or a failure, presumably later than 1995:
"Given the large quantity of units we sold, I'd say it's was a success. However, one might say it was a failure because it didn't survive until the end [of the generation]. For NEC, it might have been a failure."
Asked the same question, NEC engineer Tomio Goto, who seems to have been involved with 1979's PC-8001 and more, said only "We're proud that we brought CD-ROM technology to the market ahead of other companies."