The parent's point wasn't that Apple was trying to lock out the standard HN reader, or that an HN reader shouldn't try to repair the device. His point was that Apple is putting an obstacle in the way of a nontechnical person shooting themselves in the foot.
>The clock thing above isn't a fair comparison, a computer doesn't fall apart into two hundred pieces once you unscrew the case
I think it's a good comparison. As the grandparent mentions as an example, removing the battery risks slicing the trackpad I/O cable. While that's not falling apart into hundreds of pieces, it certainly hinders use of the computer.
It's Orwellian or perhaps Huxley-an to me that people buy into the rhetoric that they close up every single thing they make in a closed ecosystem just because of this oh so great care about the customer. Apple is a company, they might not have evil plans to conquer the world, but the most important thing for them is to make profit - one shouldn't fall in love with a company, no matter how good their products.
The clock thing above isn't a fair comparison, a computer doesn't fall apart into two hundred pieces once you unscrew the case, there are just a few discrete components and most of the time one just replaces one of them completely, almost nobody attempts to repair surface mounted components with a soldering iron, even at the repair shops. You don't have to have any special knowledge to do those things, just know a few tricks, ironically mostly related to opening things the producer didn't want you to open, and handle it with some care.
By the way, am I not, accidentally, at a site called "Hacker News"?