Samsung Galaxy S6 sacrificed what it does best in its war with Apple

This is a silly article. At no point does it actually manage to prove that the niche features (removable battery, SD card, waterproofing) were important differentiators. The article just declares it so, and assumes you will agree.

Evidence and sales suggests that users in large do not care about these features. The inclusion of larger screen sizes in the iPhone 6 series is a huge piece of evidence to suggest that screen sizes themselves were the key differentiator, and that Samsung's previous success was due to that versus any of the other features (SD Card / Waterproofing / Removable Battery) that they recently took out.

Not to mention Google itself agrees that those items are unnecessary and in their own flagship Nexus line, pulled those features out ages ago. And those sales numbers are still through the roof.