Summary
A SOC is a system on a chip. This means that the cpu, ram, io, and everything besides the interfaces and supporting chips are all embedded onto one chip. I love these devices because of how cheap they are and how much freedom they permit me to have.
I see a macbook as mega-corp greed. They know that users wont be able to fix or swap their ram and ssd. They claim its for performance and to make the model slim.
I serve small local businesses. Most of these businesses will have 20 or so employees. What they will not have is money. They come back to me with ideapads, yogas, surfaces, pavilions. I will straight up reject to work on it. why? because they trust me, and that means when something happens in 2 years, their coming to me to solve it.
A $1300 apple product should be repairable. But when its a $50-$100 pi, its ok. Because its so cheap, and small, its not a big environmental hit when it dies. But, by that logic, a chromebook is the same. Its cheap, small, and going to be a pain to repair.
Why are they not called sbc's? because of the battery and screen? Dont kid yourself. There is no way 0% waste can be achieved.