No surprises here. Just like the lockdown on iPhone screen and part replacements, Macbooks suffer from the same Apple’s anti-repair and anti-consumer bullshit. Battery glued, ssd soldered in and can’t even swap parts with other official parts. 6000$ laptop and you don’t even own it.
Yeah they locked it because they are anti-consumer. Soldered RAM has actual benefits, that’s why they aren’t the only company doing it. Two very different issues. It’s like them soldering in SSDs is anti-consumer because there is little benefit there and only a few companies are copying them.
Speed is not “just an excuse” either. This design is dependant on having RAM that fast, it’s faster than any other laptop that I have seen for a good reason. It also improves battery and reduces size.