Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last time I remember having any easy access was the Galaxy S3. Pop open the back, swap battery. Done. I would even carry spares when on vacation if I needed some extra juice.
Galaxy S5 has fully replaceable batteries as well. As a phone, I'd say it still holds up rather well as a lower end mid-range phone today. I'm holding onto it until Librem Phone comes out, which also has a replaceable battery. Having phones with non-replaceable batteries just seems incredibly wasteful to me, so I won't ever buy one on general principle.
Apple has a monopoly for Apple phones, but that isn’t a monopoly. If you buy an Apple product, you are agreeing to buy an Apple product with all that entails. If you want a user replaceable battery, you buy a different phone. Apple isn’t using market dominance to prevent you from buying alternatives. If Apple owned a majority of the battery market and created a monopoly on batteries, that’s different than them controlling the batteries in their own product. Apple’s actions don’t have any bearing on someone’s ability to buy a repair a phone — just the ability to buy and repair an Apple phone.