Think there is some sort of advantage they had by doing that rather than say, four screws at the ends of the PCB? Damage resistance? - Trying not to believe planned obsolescence was the priority.
They're cheaper to make this way. It's not 4 screws in the earlier models, it's more like 100. Fitting those, even with a special mechanism will be more time consuming and problematic than riveting.
They don't care about repair. They are optimising solely for manufacturing.
When I spilled a drink on my Framework and ordered a new keyboard, I discovered it had 3 mis-aligned screws in the keyboard from the factory. Like either a hole was punched wrong or a screw was rammed in off center. The holes and threads are all messed up and impossible to tighen those screws.
3 out of 60 or more.
Never knew there was anything wrong from the outside but I can't imagine wouldn't have worked loose over more time if I hadn't happened to have a reason to uncover them in the first year.
I love that I was able to replace a keyboard, but 3 out of 60 is a pretty bad rate.
The 2012 era ones are screwed in place (I didn't know this until this weekend when I took one apart to that level). I've never known one come loose, and a properly torqued screw will never be a problem in this situation.
