NotebookCHECK - Notebook Forum

Totally intentional and not a bad thing. It is designed to serve a different market segment.
Microsoft has to create something different from what Windows OEMs offer so that it doesn't compete directly with them.

Not sure why others are better when it comes to serviceability?
Quotes from your site:

1040 x360 g5
"The bottom panel requires a T5 torx wrench and a sharp edge to remove since the latches are very tight around the edges. Upgrade options are limited to the M.2 2280 and WWAN slots as RAM and WLAN are soldered. Note that the SSD is protected under the aluminum plate."

Huwei Matebook X pro
"The bottom panel is relatively easy to remove with a T6 Hex wrench. The eight screws are exposed with none hiding underneath the rubber footing. Care must be taken around the edges and corners since the bottom plate is sharp.
Tinkerers will be disappointed to find that there is almost nothing upgradeable. Most of the volume is dedicated to the battery and heat sink and so RAM is fixed. Additional effort is required to remove the M.2 SSD as it is underneath a heat pipe."

XPS 13 2IN1
"Our Core i7 unit comes with a 512 GB Toshiba BG4 NVMe SSD to be very similar to the 256 GB Toshiba BG4 NVMe SSD in the Core i3 configuration. Users ought to choose both RAM and storage carefully as these components are soldered."

That may be true as well. I'm just not sure if that approach has a large appeal amongst Windows users.

Thanks for the feedback!

Microsoft just choosed to not include Thunderbolt 3 and retains Surface Connect port instead. It's their decision, not that they can't.

When the Surface line first came out it was the Surface RT and that was a reaction to the iPad success. Then Microsoft became obsessed with creating a Windows version of the MacBook Pro line. Something that could show off all of the abilities of Windows. Microsoft felt many PC makers were not breaking new ground on designs and features fast enough. Surface set the bar higher and now many PC makers have actually set it even higher. Sort of like what Google did with the Pixel line of smartphones and the Pixel Chromebook. It seems every OS needs a pinnacle model that shows off the OS in a positive way.

Who is supposed to be a 'Windows purist'? I though the whole point of the surface line-up was to show what windows laptops can do apart from apart from just having more ports.

For me, the reason to prefer Windows is its extensive touchscreen and stylus support and form factors that accommodate that. Has nothing to do with anything mentioned in this article. Arguably surface devices are the best in this regard.

I think you are missing the point of windows.

It can serve many any needs, including the one you pointed out.  There are many options in the windows market that meet the need you are talking about.  You act as if all windows users are the same.

I personally have a custom built gaming desktop and a surface laptop 3.  I love them both.

What is Windows good at?
How can a device facilitate that?
Servicing the RAM and having more ports means the device will be several mm thicker and heavier. This would give away what little ground that they already have over the competition.

I agree with the author. The only reasons people buy Surface laptop are the pen support and 3:2 display ratio. The lack of access to service it renders most of these Surface device as use-and-dispose device, which is very bad for environment and a major wastage of resource. This is even worse than MacBook. Surface Laptop 3 made a major improvement but it's still far from being as modular as Thinkpads.

I disagree with this article. The Surface line is for Windows user, who want MacBook like hardware. There is nothing wrong with that. The only problem is, that they are very expensive and still have some Windows typical issues...