If there is a short data cable inside the enclosure,
That'd be nice but it isn't because sata connector group (data+power) is solded to the inner enclosure PCB.

the SATA to USB doesn't go backwards. So that would be a problem.
*Would that be* or *is that* a problem? Are you sure the data flux is monodirectional? Is this the matter of master/slave peripherals? In the "regular" case thought by the cable's manufacturer the mobo connected to the usb cable plug is the master and the HDD connected to the sata cable plug is the slave while in my case the roles as inverted.