Used to be I'd upgrade my MBP memory and hard drive to eek out one more year between upgrades. The drive could always come back and be reused as a portable drive, and the best memory for an old machine typically was cheap enough by then that it wasn't that big of a deal.
The best present is receiving something you never knew you needed until you get it, so I love giving RAM (and SSD) for birthdays! That you can keep the same computer but that it simply becomes faster is a nice surprise for many.
Components have flaws, or they break down over time, and soldering components hampers repair and reuse.
I suggest you look up "integrated circuits" and "system on a chip", which is where all of our performance/power improvements have come from. You're in for a shock when it comes to repairability!
Not sure why you're being downvoted, it's completely true!
If the SSD in my computer dies, I can just buy another one for cheap (500GB for what, 80 dollars?).
If the SSD in my Macbook/Mac Mini dies, either I can buy a new motherboard, or more likely, a new device. It is not economical nor ecological.
Also, paying 200 dollars for additional 256GB of storage? WTF.
Why? What's the purpose of artificially limiting performance when one doesn't need the upgradability?
I've, personally, never upgraded the RAM on any system I've built or carried it to a new motherboard with a new socket. I'm absolutely the target audience for this. I would love this increased performance, as long as it wasn't some surprise. Having the extra plastic on the motherboard is literally e-waste for me. Don't touch my PCI-e slots though.