Sony said it was a combination of price and time when explaining the reasoning behind the omission of the 4K UHD disc drive. It's not a big deal, but it's just something buyers can nitpick on. I personally like the PS4 Pro but got the Xbox One S while I wait for Sony to make a minor revision and...
I haven't had any problems with newegg packaging their hdds. Last time I ordered 4 hdds and they actually sent them in the 12-pack OEM box, the 4 drives were nicely distributed amongst the 12 available slots.