What is up with the ever growing steering tube compression plugs?

This thing started out life as a simple little device to provide preload of headset bearings, and nothing more:


It was a practical alternative to the existing star nut, which left gouge marks on the inside of the tube. Nobody seemed to care about scratching fatigue-prone aluminum tubes, but many pearls were clutched over the thought of scratching carbon.

Here's a star nut, just look at those mean edges:


So that was that, and compression plugs became the standard for carbon steering tubes.

But at some point, someone looked at the compression plug and thought aloud, "It's obviously there to protect the fragile carbon tube from being crushed by those mean old stems." Never mind that no manufacturer had made those claims. Oh well, that idea spread like wildfire through the bike rumor mill, until today we are offered this monstrosity:




"Extra long 90mm height reinforces carbon steerer tube beneath the stem"


90 millimeters, could this be the ultimate length? Or will these things keep growing? Only time will tell.