alt Hacker News> No space in there to make it easy to drop in a totally different engine with just a few hookups.
It's not about the space, but rather standards and engineering. Old flip phone was as busy around the battery as is modern smartphone. It's hard to change a dying battery if its glued in behind a solid case, no matter the device.
It is about space, laptops don't really have the same luxury as PC.
Currently the trendy ultra small PC cases are going in the same direction with tightly coupled components, not in the connector spec, but dimensional fits.