I'm confused about the reason that only certain drives can properly dump PC CD-ROM games. I've done a bunch of research to try and answer this question myself and have come close but still don't fully understand it. My understanding at the moment is that the key reason we require Plextor drives for PC CD-ROM games is that they allow a program to read data from the lead-in and lead-out, whereas most other drives will fail if a program attempts to access the lead-in or lead-out. Normal drives are obviously technically capable of reading these sections but only use them internally and don't expose the complete data to the OS.
My initial guess was that the lead-in and lead-out are required because we want to have the most complete copy of a disc as possible, but if we wanted the most complete copy of a disc we would also require that dumps include subchannels, correct? Obviously at the moment we include the cuesheet but that can't be used to perfectly recreate the subchannels. If there were special important data in the lead-in and lead-out, it would make more sense, but given that there aren't any PC games that are only playable on Plextors, I assume any copy protection in the lead-in and lead-out would be accessible by any normal drive.
Regardless of the specifics, though, my core confusion is: given that PC CD-ROM games can be played in basically any CD drive, shouldn't they be dumpable using any CD drive? By definition, all of the data necessary to play the game must be accessible to the game using any CD drive, right? Is the Plextor requirement simply for completeness' sake or is there some deeper CD voodoo that I'm not understanding?
If someone could help me understand what I'm getting wrong or what info I'm missing I would greatly appreciate it - it would ease my mind knowing that I bought this finicky old drive for a good reason 
. Thanks in advance!