My wife had to have a headlight replaced on a new car, about 2 years after owning it. There was a ton of work to replace it. Unlike my first car (ahem) years ago where this was a routine thing and took all of 5 minutes.

So yes, it is now ridiculously complicated to replace lights. But here’s the kicker — my wife’s dealer had never had to do it before. They are so reliable that this was the first time they had to replace a light in that model. We walked in and asked them to replace it as if it was routine. They didn’t believe us that it was out.

So, my guess, not knowing anything about the VW in question is that it really was that complicated, but not something that is expected to happen often.

Exactly the same thing is gradually happening with lights at home. In the past, light bulbs always had some variant of the standard screw-in socket because the bulbs would wear out so often; with modern LEDs, the lights last far longer so making them easy to replace is less important. At the same time, LEDs are so flexible in size and shape that forcing them into an easily replaceable form-factor is a much larger imposition. Between these two aspects, lamps without replaceable bulbs make a lot of sense from a purely practical design point of view.

Sometimes (see my comment upthread), it can't really be helped. I had the same reaction to the Service manual when a headlight on my 350Z went out: what do you mean I have to remove the bumper to change a lightbulb? Makes no sense.

However, while it's possible to do it without removing the bumper (I go in through the wheel well), it's harder that way. The reality is that there isn't a lot of room in the first place, and headlights can last a very long time, so for an infrequent service it does make sense.