> Removable batteries were the industry standard in the early days of mobile phones, and it worked perfectly.

Phones back then were bad (so accommodating replaceable batteries was easy), and batteries degraded quickly (so it was a necessity).

Modern phones are smaller, need to be more water proof, stuffed to an unimaginable degree with components -- and modern batteries last a really long time.

I am not so sure it's a good idea to force them to become consumer replaceable again.

My iPhone SE (1st gen) ended up being pushed apart from the inside last year because the battery had swelled up. I could have had it replaced but the CPUs were a bit too weak for the modern world and the RAM too limited. A fresh new battery would not have upgraded the CPUs or the RAM.

Li-ion batteries have improved since 2016 so I expect the battery in my iPhone 16e to outlast the useful life of the CPUs and RAM in it.

> extract the remaining rare earths

More for the gold, I believe. There are youtubers who do it semi-professionally and are remarkably transparent about how they do it. It looks like the only really toxic fumes they contend with are a tiny bit of sulphuric acid vapour from their electrolytic baths.

I don't think we should ship the trash to Africa or poor parts of Asia. I don't see how replaceable batteries would have prevented my iPhone SE from becoming trash or have prevented my iPhone 16e from becoming trash in the future. Or preventing them from ending up in Africa/Asia, for that matter.

Edit: had accidentally written "back" in the first line when I meant "bad".

Edit 2: used the past tense by mistake ("expected the battery in my iPhone 16e").