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In my experience working on these types of conversions, the employee takes on significant investment risk in the HSA

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The phrase 'investment risk' refers the risks associated with the investment vehicles of the HSA account and not with the actual health coverage.

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But it's still part of the risk to employees that is not there if they just obtain coverage under a plan at the employer's expense. In that case the investment risk resides with the insurer.

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not all come with a free high-deductible "emergency" plan on the side

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In the United States, ALL HSAs must be paired with a HDHP.

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Interesting. As noted, I consult in other jurisdictions that are not as restrictive and I admit that I did not know such pairing was mandatory. Pairing it with a HDHP really just makes it a combination of HSA and traditional, so I'm not sure this is an argument for HSA structures (you're basically saying that the flaws of the HSA can be reduced by maintaining some of the traditional arrangement).