"What is the expert's solution to the crummy Molex connectors"
well, actually the Molex connectors used on old IDE / PATA drives were a lot better than the SATA connectors used now. With the molex ones the only real problem was if the connector pins came loose, or if the plastic became brittle and cracked
with SATA connectors, the things easily fall off the contacts. Some modern STAT data connectors now have retention clips to stop this, but the power leads don't. Problems with SATA connectors got so bad at one large company I worked at, that we routinely fixed the connectors into place with blobs from a thermal glue gun