Selling the unit as a whole almost certainly is a loss for them, but they make money by having people buying games from them. Selling parts like that would be unlikely to have a similar effect, so they might not be able to sell it at a price point that makes sense.

$549 is probably a break even price. It's a great value nonetheless, but kind of too high to be at a loss.

deckhd [1] creators (third-party 1200p screen for deck) said it's not possible, as it will require modifying main board (something about voltage regulation, if i recall correctly)

[1] https://deckhd.com/

I don't think the dimensions are the same. Resolution is, but LCD screen size says 7", OLED says 7.4"

They are the same, the LCD/old version just has massive bezels around the screen so they've just decreased them a little.

The dimension of the screens are not the same, though.

that difference is likely because of the smaller bezel rather than the display piece itself. they have said the screen protectors and other accessories will still work

but regardless it looks like they use a different connector so it wont be possible https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/823177/Can+I+just+buy+th...

The screen is thinner and the battery is larger -- it's also, as others have said, a larger screen. The bezels are smaller.

Also with the MMC option gone (so the PCB area can be reclaimed), thicker fans and cooling solution, different internal size battery and screen, I wonder if the entire mainboard has been redesigned.

eMMC just slots into the m2 slot. There is no area to be reclaimed

With a lot of changes that probably can't be retrofit into a launch Deck, I see this as trying to attract new customers instead of old ones. Probably worth waiting on the next release with an actual spec bump in a few more years.