Apple's cooperation with Chinese officials

I've never seen a phone that can't have the battery replaced. Now most do not have interchangeable batteries where you can just take the battery off and put a new one on, but the batteries can be replaced. You just have to open up the phone to do it. I'm sure some people just trade to a newer phone rather than jumping through the hoops, but many simply replace the battery. I've done several replacements for myself as well as for friends/family. Even in our small town, there are several stores that will replace the batteries. We had one of our kid's Iphone batteries replaced for $60 because I was traveling a good bit at that time and wasn't able to get to it.

I believe it is simply a supply/demand situation with flip phones. There is very low demand and thus low supply. Even my 82 YO mother wanted a smart phone over a flip phone the last time we replaced her phone.