Reducing Costs
All the things mentioned in the article (with the exception of the oddball screws) do two things: First they make the device sturdier and more reliable. Second, they make the device less expensive and more green to manufacture. Soldered and glued components are not only faster to assemble, they take less materials. A few screws and sockets may not seem like much, but multiply that by a billion devices and you have a significant impact. Glue and solder means fewer trucks moving parts to the factory, less materials going into the device means less material coming out of factories and less material going into the ground at the dump.
The cost of this is, of course, that these devices are difficult to repair. However, I'd argue that even if they were repairable, only a tiny fraction would ever be repaired. Technology is moving so fast that a new device is obsolete in less than two years. While there will always be some people that hang on to old devices, most people will get the newest device because they want something that will work with current technologies
If the device manufacturers need to focus on something, it's improving the devices' recyclability rather than it's repairability.
