[immibis]

Laptops have always been trading size for upgradeability and other factors, and soldering everything is the way to make them tiny. If you ask me they've gotten too extreme in size. The first laptops were way too bulky, but they hit a sweet spot around 2005-2010, being just thick enough to hold all those D-Sub connectors (VGA, serial, etc).

And soldering stuff to the board is the default way to make something when upgradeability isn't a feature.