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I think when it comes to laptops, you basically get one of those "here's 3 things, you can have any 2" situations...those 3 things here being:

-Beautiful

-User upgradeable/serviceable

-Affordable

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I think the macbook pro has been one of the easiest laptops to take apart and service. There's no locking screw hidden underneath the keyboard that requires a plastic bezel snapped out of place (prone to breaking) in order to get to a hard drive or something. You simply take out all the bottom screws, and the entire lower shell is removed to expose everything, even the mainboard.

It's a wonderful design, however Apple has since decided to solder the SSD and memory to the mainboard, making them non-serviceable. This is not a choice made to make the device more beautiful or more affordable. They did it to be greedy.

We as consumers can have all three if we demanded it, but there's money to be made cutting corners and most people don't understand how to vote with their dollars.

Direct soldering reduces manufacturing cost, increases ruggedness and reliability (with fewer connectors) and reduces size and weight. You could argue for a different tradeoff, but there are reasons other than greed why Apple would choose it.

It is Apple we are talking about here.

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