That's kinda how I feel!! I STILL can't get over the fact that an ENGINEER of all people would design a radiator to have unnecessary holes in it. WHY?????

 

re: an ENGINEER of all people would design

Because most engineering university programs don't offer labs on real world items, and some faculty members are all theory and low milage on practical items. Many engineers learn that they don't know it all in the first 5 years of practice, then it is a race to keep up. Unlike medical school, where they require internship and residency, a company can hire a newly matriculated engineer and put him straight to work. However, if he is going into private practice, he'll have to work under a more senior Professional Engineer, and in about 5 years he can stand for the PE exam.

Many companies are run by bean counterz, so one practice is to lay off senior engineers just before retirement, and hire brand new motivated young replacements. The learning curve resets. Product quality suffers eventually.

As for extra holes, might be to fit other applications. But having anything screwed into plastic that is subject to heat swings and vibration is going to cause problems at some point.