That's the catch isn't it? Manufacturers have a lot of markup on things like RAM and SSD that they'd rather force you to upgrade on their websites than sell without memory.

Anecdata: I was trying to buy a couple of Dell Laptops for our office and the Dell US website has a customize option. Base model had 4 GB RAM and the upgrade to 8 GB RAM was .. drum roll .. approx $67 [1] . Comparable one on Amazon? $37-ish [2]. You will have a lot of fun doing similar comparison with SSDs.

[1]https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PC4-19200-2400MHz-SODIMM-M471...

A thick laptop with many ports can look just as good as a thin one.

Even if you do, they're still not necessarily exclusive: ifixit tore down a bunch of HP devices, and even the "Elite X2 G4" two-in-one — not exactly a beastly looking device https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Elite-x2-G4-detachable-will... — got 9/10 on repairability: https://www.ifixit.com/News/hp-makes-the-modern-repairable-d...

So where is the thinner obsession coming from? Why are they removing all the ports?

Isn't it because of fashion?

Functionality and esthetics do not have to be mutually exclusive, but the people designing laptops don't seem to be aware of that.

It could also be because they just try to sell whatever it is they think most of their customers believe they want / need (wether or not said customers are right is a whole other matter)