I assume that is related to sufficient power at the right amperage. That is, if a hub has enough juice it should be okay. I seem to recall once reading that the keyboard USB doesn't deliver much power, which I found puzzling because, if you're going to the trouble of installing the port, why not make it as functional as possible?
Yes the issue is power and you can run the bus powered SuperDrive on a self-powered hub or even a buds powered USB 2 or 3 hub. Adding additional ports via a hub does not add additional power to drive devices attached to the hub. The reason the hub on the keyboard was/is so marginal on power is it is powered by the USB port on the computer and particularly on laptops the USB 1 ports were generally at the bottom end of the power range specified in the standard to conserve battery power and were not much better on desktop computers. In more recent machines the USB 2, 3, and particularly USB C standards specify significantly higher minimum power requirements.
FWIW I agree with V1 and will take a non detachable USB cable over a power brick any day.
