The key is encrypted with a KEK which is derived from a users password.
What many of these encrypted drives do is just always run the encryption but with either a default key which is all zeros or with an unencrypted key until the user enrolls into the encryption feature at which point the key will be encrypted with their password or fingerprint.
The way I do it is I format the drive on Linux. Then format it as ext4 with LUKS encryption. Were you on Windows?
Sometimes the default key is also all zeros/ones until the user has initialized the encryption function at which a random key is generated and encrypted with a KEK.
W/E you format the drive with or too or how you use it doesn’t matter, you don’t have raw access to drives anymore (sectors, clusters etc don’t mean anything anymore) with or without encryption the controller basically emulates an “ideal drive” to the OS and does it’s own thing.
In my country, wall sockets are often riveted closed, because (a) they gotta be cheap, and (b) they've got a bunch of screw terminals, and they're worried with any more screws some dumbass will undo the wrong ones.
Did you try looking up the manual? Even if the steps for removing it aren't documented, you can often walk the installation steps in reverse order.
Visible serial + some documentation would help a great deal.
Yesterday I wanted to fix the light on a USB wallsocket I have, I gave up because after 10 minutes I couldn't figure out how to even open the thing up. I tried squeezing it, tapping it in various parts, prying at various seams, nothing would give.
That being said, I really wonder how you could regulate this easily. Lack of screws could be argued to be beneficial for aesthetics for instance. Modern smartphones are a pain to repair in no small part because size is very important so everything is crammed together, and highly integrated components are usually smaller and yield better economies of scale.
I think it's a good idea, but I'm really not sure how it could be implemented well.