I've occasionally declined to take a board offered for evaluation simply because it didn't offer enough practically useable I/O for me to effect a practical evaluation easily. If I have to make extensive modifications, or to buy an expensive accessory, then I know at the outset that I won't have the time or be willing to make the necessary investment, so I don't accept the eval board. It would be disengenuous to do so. I generally make this clear, but on occasion have been persuaded to "take it anyway."

This may have an effect on what's offered. However, I think there's a general downturn in the number and quality of "freebies" offered by the manufacturers of the device types that I use. I've found a few useful eval boards/kits, over the past decade, but many fewer than in the previous decade. Further, I've bought most of them, and not often from the device manufacturer, but, rather, from a third party with sufficient understanding of what it takes to put such a board to practical use or evaluation, than device manufacturers, particularly their marketeers, seem to exhibit.

From where I sit, and that's not everybody's position, what matters to me is not the "extras," though those can be convenient, but, rather, the availability of either a place to put interconnection/adapter hardware, or a way to implement simple interconnection to somewhere that allows that.

RE