Cut out SSD's for builds below 1000 dollars.
Personally I feel that at that point a budget would be better spent on a better GPU, MOBO, or more efficient PSU.
I strongly disagree with you there.
I/O is the biggest bottleneck in 99% of computers, and an SSD makes a huge real world difference.
In comparison a mobo or more efficient PSU makes 0 real world difference to the speed or performance of the build. You can make an argument for a GPU upgrade being preferred, but an SSD+7950/760 would be a much better combo than, for example, a 7970 on its own in terms of the overall experience.
You can manually take the SSD off using the customisable storage options, but that would be a mistake IMO.