Drive docks were a lot more popular a decade+ ago, when some people purchased bare drives because they were $100 or more cheaper than external drives. But these days the price differences can be negligible, and failure of a drive dock can be more problematic than losing a single external drive (which presumably has a backup or is a backup).
I think drive docks can be a temporary solution, or a good tool for techs who need to access drives pulled from computers, but they often have problems with robustness over long periods.
I recently pointed to a BackBlaze report of their drive usage which found annual failure rates averaging 12% by Year 4. I individually ID my drives and set reminders in my task manager to replace my drives every five years.