Maybe Apple should use their proverbial ingenuity and inventiveness to invent a smartphone design that lets you open its back shell without screws to allow the user to replace their own battery, though I'm not sure if the technology for it is quite there yet.

Sure, 100%, though that's a separate topic to the ridiculous urban legend that came out of that story. Something still must be done when a user has a degraded battery that can't handle the full draw of the CPU.

It was literally court decision that led to the Apple implementing switch allowing users to switch their smartphones to unsafe mode.

I still think that Apple was right there by not implementing this switch, and judge was an idiot. But that's just me.

Batteries last years and are already easily replaceable.

They're not even the only consumable part anyway.

Last as in "works" is a very low bar, they are going to have severely reduced capacity, which also affects performance.

>Batteries ... are already easily replaceable

Is this[1] what easy looks like?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0fUmW-2swg

> Last as in "works" is a very low bar, they are going to have severely reduced capacity, which also affects performance.

Batteries tend to degrade to about 85% quickly and then spend a long time at that capacity. Couldn't tell you why.

A USB battery is a more useful thing to have, for instance because you don't have to turn off the phone to use it.

> Is this[1] what easy looks like?

For something you'd do every 2-3 years, sure. He's put in some extra steps in that video I think.

Ifixit score of 7 plus best parts availability of any phone makes for a great combination in my mind.

On the other hand, before the iPhone, literally every phone had a back cover that could be removed with bare hands and batteries held in by friction. After iPhone, all phones are sealed and require tiny screws to be removed, special adhesives to be defeated (god help you if you break off the stretchy adhesive strips), and of course seals to be replaced. And all this was done from the 2007 iPhone, over a decade before Apple did any IP67 rating of any kind, so none of it was done for waterproofing.

So, "Apple killed battery swappability" is a fair thing to say.

There are even phones now with proper IP ratings AND removable back covers. I believe the Samsung line of "industrial" or like commercial oriented phones and tablets (I think they're called XCover ?)