Its amazing that the general public have accepted that as another other than a deliberate ploy to sell more new phones more regularly.
Regulators need to start enforcing repairability if they actually want to tackle e-waste.
I really hope vendors get forced to open up their hardware for the user to install their own OS once they stop supporting a device with updates.
I know the hardware on Android is fragmented but by now we should be able to handle this? PC are way more fragmented. Maybe drivers need to be open sourced?
Is it just too much competitive interest?
What manufacturer would want a phone that last more than 3 years when there is no downside and a possibility of someone buying another phone.
The only scenario where I see this change is by a law or phones become something you no longer own but rent. Then it would be in the interest of the manufacturer to keep the costs as low as possible and try to make you keep the same phone as long as possible.
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210557?cid=iOS_SettingsUI_...
As well as the fact that back then phones progressed much faster so by the time your battery gave out, the new phone was much much better.
Easily swappable batteries would be a big value add now for a lot of people.