[thebigpicture]

But if you construct the chest so no one can verify what's used to make it, what's the point?

If Apple's products are quality all the way through, why can't I easily open up my iPod/iPhone/iPad?

If it's quality all the way through, why would you hide what's on the inside?

[statictype]

Part of it's high quality polish and finish is the lack of seams and protrusions and screws. This necessarily means something that's difficult to open up.

You can make an argument that they made the wrong trade-off between aesthetics and pragamatism, but for the trade-off they made, they executed well.