I don't like machine translator implants

[BaneOfGiygas]

See but here's the problem. The main circumstances in which you'd want to covertly talk with your cyborgs is when? When you're rogue. The problem is that PDA chat is not very quick and distracts you from everything else that's going on while you're trying to hammer out a message. Since the crew is most likely trying to hunt you down and otherwise foil your efforts, you really don't want to have to stand around waiting until your message is finished typing. It's just not efficient at all. Typing in the chat box lets you quickly move around/switch your camera view and otherwise react more quickly to stuff that happens.