Buying a device online is also the same old model and there are hardly any updates. Nowadays, you can actually get quite a bit of an update guarantee with some budget devices.
In addition, you do not know what the device (battery) went through. Thus, the target group that will buy such a device is not the target group that really knows how to replace the battery in a cheap way.

Personally, I think what you get for a €200 device is doable. I currently have a budget machine of €200 that is about 5 years old. It’s starting to show its age, but I’m very happy with what I got out of it.

Where I share your opinion are very cheap devices (<100 euros). There is a price so low that it started to be filled with spam apps to drastically lower the price of the device. So, there are manufacturers that do whatever it takes to prevent you from turning them off and thus removing some menus from the standard Android menu.
I actually tried to clean a few of those people’s smartphones (for a volunteer organization that helps people in poverty with digital questions) and f*ck man, what was that… all are Chinese brands and that’s about sports to provide 50+ additional apps and close all Something so hard that it’s no longer pretty.