It’s all about durability. For example, that phone is not going to be up to the standard of an iPhone when it comes to water resistance. What’s better constantly being able to fix your own phone or never needing to fix your phone. It is a spectrum, but I think for environmental and most consumer reasons, one wants it to be more towards the later.
"Never" is a false hope when the average lifespan of a phone is something like 2.5 years.
The battery will fail, it's just a matter of time. The screen will become cracked. The charge port will become corroded or loose. Water intrusion will happen and be unrepairable because it's inaccessible and uncleanable, not because anything's been dissolved.
Yes, eventually the hardware will be inadequate to keep up with modern apps and websites, but I think we're to the point of diminishing returns on laptops and close to it on smartphones.
And yes, eventually the software will not be supported, but that's a problem of hardware churn and economics, not engineering and durability.
A short lifespan is largely because it's not repairable, not in spite of it being repairable.
Dropping the phone in water is a possibility, the battery becoming useless is a certainty. Repairability is important.
The Samsung S5 had a removable back with a silicone seal, this was one of the first widely available water resistant phones. I'm sure they could come up with an even better version now if they wanted to. Glueing it shut is not a requirement for water resistance.
Drop this plastic phone onto concrete, drop a glass iPhone onto concrete. Phone cases should not need to exist, nor be as ubiquitous as they are - they are band-aids on bad durability.
You could probably bend this thing easier than an iPhone, I don't know how much of a metal frame is in this one, but they could add one make it as sturdy. Screws do not preclude this.
It's not all about durability. Screws have a minimal impact on durability compared to materials. It's about a sleek design for sales, with the added benefit of planned obsolescence.
