Comment 3 for bug 99498

The device may not be physically ejected, but it's told to do so. This may change the state of the device's display from "don't disconnect me" to "OK to disconnect", flush internal buffers et al.

Look at any iPod for confirmation.

Conclusion: We do need a "real" eject. We might want to rename it to "eject or disconnect" so as to not confuse users, and we may need to fix an immediate-remount bug if a device misbehaves. But reverting this is IMHO not an option.

Data point: All the USB sticks, iPods, cameras and memory stick readers I possess (about 20 of them, all together, I might add) behave correctly.