"He simply straps dry bags to the rack. Kinda takes away from the fun of designing things."

But it's good news for you, as shown above in the design I posted by that other guy. I thnk a lot of guys want an Ortlieb. Eventually we all ride through a sunami, and even if as with my trip last fall, nothing got wet, one starts to see the alure of a dry bag panier. But how much of ones stuff really needs it? So a modular system that used a dry bag only when, or for what, needed one seems like a better deal than the non-welded paniers that desperately attach internal waterproof liners and rain covers.

Anyway as mentioned I think the key with ultralight is taking note across all the gear, so if one is only carrying 10 pounds just how heavy do the paniers need to be I think it's nuts to have these hard backs on paniers and in addition these bulletproof racks. The two ought to be integrated. It's like an external frame pack with an an extra external frame. I think the fabric model os actually outdated. An integrated hard and smooth rack out of light material, molded poly or carbon fiber, would do a lot of this stuff better.

This isn't the comuting forum, and I thin there is a place for separaqte gear, just as I don't use my backpack at the office.