Commodity cost model, plus liquid pressure ratings on common PC case fans, IMO. You see some limited filtering on higher-end models. Mine has removable fine-mesh screens over all of the ingress/egress points. Most inexpensive fans don't do static pressure well, like your common box fan -- it can move a lot of air when it gets things moving but if you seal off an end, it doesn't move resistant air the way a rotary impeller or centrifugal fan (aka squirrel cage blower) does. Noctua makes some really nice, reliable and fairly inexpensive fans targeted at the new liquid-cooling radiators and are designed with a significantly higher (in some cases almost double) static pressure rating. I replace both of the noisy, cheap-crap Corsair fans on my Hydro H81 with a single Noctua NF-12 and it runs cooler at idle and load while also being significantly quieter.
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