Evil or not, mine sits in a plastic soap bar container in my bag until it is needed. and really except for the cable release, it isn't difficult to hold a motor-driven camera vertically and fire the shutter without one.
I never understood tricking out cameras with extra bits of dreck (soft sutter releases/firing rate converters/data backs/tripod socket hole repositioners and the like) so they look heftier and different from the other guys.
As for the hand straps. I've always made my own. The baseplates are a little more difficult and three of the four I have were made for me by machine shops, the exception being the one for my FA which I fabricated from extruded aluminum at a company I used to work for.
Robert