[Note: this is my first post to the list]
Businesses storing data on-chain is undesirable but sadly unavoidable. Therefore one might as well *facilitate* data storage beyond just OP_RETURN by offering a more efficient way to store data on-chain, while still being almost as expensive in use per byte of payload (i.e., data) compared to using OP_RETURN.
Storing data using OP_RETURN is still inefficient per byte of payload so a more efficient dedicated data storing facility might be created that stores more payload data per on-chain byte. Such a facility should be (marginally) cheaper to use per payload byte compared to using a hack such as OP_RETURN. This would encourage the use of this facility in favor of OP_RETURN or other hacks, while at the same time dramatically reducing the footprint of storing data on-chain.
Zac