For him, the kicker was the battery life. How do you test battery life in the Apple store? You're not allowed to unplug the thing. (And even if you could, who's going to spend several hours there to assess the battery life?)

You also speak as if fast SSDs and replaceability are mutually exclusive. They're not—check out the specs of the Samsung 960 Pro: 3.5 GB/s read, 2.1 GB/s write.