[Zak]

This is what turns it from a minor issue to a severe one in my mind.

I've killed a few keyboards on older Thinkpads. The replacement part was maybe $50 new, and considerably less for a used one on Ebay. It's not integrated with any other component and can be changed in 10 minutes with only a Phillips screwdriver.

I'm sure integrating the keyboard with the expensive machined aluminum upper case, trackpad and whatever else is built into that component resulted in a laptop that's 1mm thinner.

[cjcampbell]

I have encountered Lenovo integrating the keyboard on other some of their models while helping friends with repairs. Of course, the top case replacement was not so insanely expensive, but it was still a point of frustration from the repair perspective. Certainly disappointed in Apple making the same move here.

[amiga-workbench]

I had to swap the keyboard on a coworkers 2012 Macbook Pro once. You had to totally empty the machines guts out and remove about 50 tiny torx screws to get the keyboard out.

Never again.