How do you think smartphone manufacturers will comply with EU's replaceable battery regulation?

I never said it was impossible. I said it was harder to both make them replaceable and water resistant. And they won't bother to do both for 99% of models, they'll just drop the water resistance to comply with replaceable battery requirements. There might be a few that they bother and then sell at inflated prices.

That's a ruggedized phone, most people don't want a phone that's twice as thick and doesn't provide anywhere near twice the battery.

Having worked in retail phone repair for 15 years, both for a major US carrier and privately... A lot.

I saw water damaged phones every single day, and I'm hundreds of miles from an ocean, sea, lake, or any major body of water. That's just from mistakes near things like backyard pools.

This is because waterproof devices will be might be exempt from having to have replaceable batteries.

Some manufacturers are already eyeing an exemption for batteries used in "wet conditions" to opt out electric toothbrushes and possibly wearables like earbuds and smartwatches. The exemption is "based on unfounded safety claims," states Thomas Opsomer, policy engineer for iFixit, in RepairEU's post.

Source

Rain is quite common. Most clothing isn't waterproof.

Or you could be making a call after a rainy day then drop it in a puddle.

Or your drinks spilled over

etc... etc...