LeslieFH The main reason for doing away with SD card slots and removable batteries is shareholder value. [...] If you can't easily swap the battery, you'll be more eager to trade in your old iPhone for a new iPhone.
It is true that some people will trade in early, but also true that some people will file class-action lawsuits. Meanwhile, I am curious as to whether the people who swap batteries as their jobs believe that sealed phones exist just to create jobs for them as a way to increase shareholder value.
LeslieFH The SD cards were not done away with "because of water resistance" (the devices that can use microSD usually put them on the same tray as the SIM cards, which are still with us), but because they disincentivised people to buy the expensive "lots of internal memory" models.
As much as I am not thrilled about it, it seems pretty clear that physical SIM cards are on the way out. And in a sense that will be supportive of "shareholder value", since the companies will continue down that route only if they think most customers will be fine without a physical SIM slot and they will be able to make more money by using the space for something else that most people want more.