Ease of maintenance is rarely a marketable feature in mass-market consumer products, and most often is deprioritized.

Replaceable batteries apparently make water resistance a lot harder. I always preferred having an easily replaceable battery but I don't mind the tradeoff on my S10+.

A battery replacement is $79. No one is forcing you to buy a new phone.

A lithium ion battery doesn't cost anywhere near that much, its either poor design and/or profiteering on the device manufacturers part to charge that much for a $15 battery to be replaced.

You could say that about all pricing everywhere. Seems like a waste of breath.

Also doesn't change the upstream clarification that you don't need to buy a new device to get a new battery.

The battery is a user changeable part on most mid-range and low end phones.

The point of this predatory pricing tactic is to force owners of phones with sub-$200 in value to upgrade, rather than potentially waste half (or more) of the phone's value on replacing the battery.

Which carrier sold Android phones - where most users by their phones - have user replaceable batteries?

The Moto G is usually cited as one of the best mid range phone and it doesn’t have user replaceable batteries. I don’t think most of the cheap Walmart phones have user replaceable batteries.

The Samsung Galaxy J7 and Moto E5 Play (both free under 24 month commitment on T-Mobile) have removable batteries.

I do about a dozen mobile repairs a year for family, and it really does seem like the new automobile.

Auto’s were not built for ease of repair, the repairs themselves can be quite easy if you know what to do, and often require components that are only 1 or 2 orders of magnitude in price. Paying someone who knows what to do with it, they also add an order (similar to screen repairs).