Your assertion seems to be trivially proven false, given that Framework still exists as a going concern.

Though I suppose what you say is perhaps still true, if you allow "almost" to do a lot of work.

One can move the word "almost" to make more sense: it's only almost a market even if everyone in it is rabid about those features.

It's not a substantial share of the overall laptop market because, quoting from above…

people don’t consider the ability to repair or upgrade your machine part of a “premium” experience ... will lament how manufacturers don’t have upgradable ram, etc and then turn around and are upset at the bulkiness of a repairable laptop

The flip side is technorati gripe about Apple (lack of) repairability, but their revealed preference then shifts back to this: a claim to want reliability but actions of shoppings for premium performance and fit and finish in slim value-holding form factors. To achieve those, particularly with durable value (and resale value to prove it), there's a way to make things that "repairability" generally makes compromises from.

Research has suggested Apple's approach — laptops with 4x the usable and resalable life span — results in less e-waste per capita than both the disposable and repairable ecosystems.

I think there is a revealed preference that most people don't focus much on repairability, but I don't think it's at odds with a good form factor.

I am not focused on doing it myself. The most that I care about doing myself is buying a new charging cable if somehow I damage the one the laptop comes with.

And I have this feeling most people are kind of the same page as me.

I guess repair-ability only matters if you expect the laptop to break. And there's no benchmarks for durability. But yeah I agree that upgrade-ability is of dubious value for most people.

Enterprises that buy ThinkPads do care about maintainability and Lenovo does provide parts and detailed instructions to repair almost every aspect of their machines.

They most likely have contracts with them Lenovo and were former users of IBM.

I haven’t heard of any big company tyat repairs their own hardware in about 20 or so years.

Apple continues to be the elephant in the repairability room. You want something that likely won’t need repair ever for its useful lifetime, a current MacBook is worth looking at. Upgradeability, nope.

Yup, Apple user since 2001, desktop and laptop, 20ish years in an office environment used for 8+ hours a day, now 5 years retired. Total faults - zero. Desire to upgrade RAM before rest of machine needed updates (eg storage+CPU+screen) - zero. Dissatisfaction with "Apple model": zero.

But... lately I've felt a hankering to run Linux as a first-class citizen rather than a VM and that's definitely a gap in Mac functionality. I wouldn't sacrifice the five years I enjoy MacOS on my machines for the ability to then move them to Linux, but it would still be nice.

I think the farther allow non-free implementations of technology to go, the harder it will be to bring us back from the brink.

We sacrifice our freedom now, because of convenience and feature sets thinking everything is going to work out in the end. In 25 years I think we are all going to look back on this moment and wish we didn't make the choices we did, myself included.

Having managed fleets of Macs (along with Windows and Linux machines) at last three $worksplace, repair/replace is no more hassle with Apple than Lenovo.

Arguably less, as if you have the right relationship with Apple, you can let your employee walk into any Genius Bar™ for fix, or walk into Apple Store or visit your own smart hands crew (with inventory on hand), for an incredibly straightforward swap.

And to your point, it's almost never needed.

They are less repairable but not impossible. My M1 Air has had a new usb port and screen. Battery probably soon.