The lack of repairability and fragility of recent models has driven up the repair price and the need for repairs so much it makes AppleCare vital now. Apple outright lied in Europe for years about warranty duration to upsell AppleCare and went to court multiple times before they stopped, these "replace most of the computer" repairs might be nothing more than a dark pattern sales optimization. During iFixit's live teardown of this device it turned out there was plenty of space for socketed ram and storage, as is consistent with devices much smaller.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/253151/eu_law_forces_apple_t...