oh no’s! it’s spreading!
I just came across a Black and Decker product that has a somewhat similar ‘vent’ treatment:
The black sidepanels were non-existent in their product line-up before. So I’m guessing the designers were directly influenced by the powerwasher I started this thread with, which was directly copied from an Alienware design. Ah well, they must not have wanted to venture too far out of the box…