[smt88]

Does "right to repair" have anything to do with "repairability"? There are definitely some things, like iPhones, that might not be possible to build in a repairable way without decreasing the quality of the product. Perhaps Surface is like that, too.

[mwfunk]

This is the biggest conundrum for me. Every engineering decision is a compromise. There are very few cases where making a choice by going down one path isn't a compromise where you're getting one thing but giving up something else. Obviously user-serviceability is a good property for a device to have, but that has a cost as well (a device that is lower quality or less desirable in other ways).