[xxs]

I am not sure what kind of point you are attempting to make: the amount of transistors in an IC hardly matters. No one repairs individual transistors. The chips/IC can be replaced and many ICs are not much more expensive than the cogs in the watch.

Ofc, there are billions of transistors in a phone - that doesn't mean anything at all.

Repeatability depends on being able to open a device/tool non-destructively, being able to assemble it back - glue/epoxy used as cheap fastening/engineering tools is the bane of. Ability to find spare parts and service manuals, schematics and the like. The count of transistors is irrelevant as even a simple and single MOSFET driver is enough to prevent a device being operational.

The comment comes off extremely misguided and ill-informed.

[cheesecracker]

Pretty sure they save materials, time to assemble and "space" by gluing instead of using replacable parts.

I guess your theory is that it is all malice by the manufacturers?

[xxs]

If was time to assemble they would have not been inventions like pentalobe and 'secure' torx screws. If you have seen a pcb with just an IC (chip) potted in epoxy, you'd know the sole reason for.

Glue has its own issues including degrading with temperature - which doesn't really happen to bolts/nuts/screws.

The specific standard would hopefully begin to address the issue with throwaway culture and planned obsolesce (there is min 2y warranty in the EU for all electronic goods, though). I dont care if a company save less than 1euro, making something that costs hundreds/thousands virtually useless for any minor ceramic capacitor that fails.