Yea, they arnt designed very well. But you gotta think it was in its infancy with a handfull of engineers that really didn't know. there was nothing to compare it to. There was no google to look up reference designs, which I quite often do. You had to go to the library and look at various circuit "cookbooks". I still have a couple of those. lol. 

But Sony was the electronics mastermind back in those days, and when they finally stepped up to plate, they got things right with the PB100.