You give yourself too little credit. Most people can’t manage that either. In fact, most people wouldn’t know it was missing.
You give yourself too much credit. I can’t figure out what to put here, it’s just for symmetry. 🙂
I’ve done it on my Dell laptop and, a customer’s (very old) Compaq. I agree with you about Dell laptops. They’re very durable and it’s easy to get at the most commonly replaced parts.