Making them more repairable will add to the cost, which would be handed down to the consumer. Seeing as the only people desperately wanting user-repairability at all levels are the very same people throwing wild random repair cost numbers about, I don't think they'd be too happy to pay an extra few hundred dollars for the base unit.
Just different tactics, if they make it fully repairable, that's fine, you can't make it as efficient and it would cost more - but be repairable. If you make it entirely un-repairable (Which it is far from), then they can control the manufacturing and simplify the whole process - cheaper to produce.
That's not defending anything, but Apple aren't the only one's doing this sort of thing. The entire electronics industry has gradually shifted from solidly built to last products (70s) into mass produced and replaceable (today). That's to say at one point, everything you brought cost a fortune but lasted decades (Old TV's, white goods, even computers). However this all changed when consumers wanted more and more, and cheaper. So now we don't hold onto a computer for 10+ years, it's normally 4+ years, there's no need to build something that will last for 10+ years as it's just unnecessary cost.
Granted this does affect people, however consumerism will always go the way of the masses and the few either adapt or complain.