Somebody _is_ kind of doing that: https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ . They also mod x220s but the mod is more invasive since they require a different screen bezel.

I recently got an x62 and it's great, although you must put some effort into making linux work smoothly on it and making the screen brighter. But all in all I am extremely happy with it.