It seems like I’m on the opposite site of most of the critics here.
That fix and it’s explanation by @nicole.faerber in the now closed post where this thing first came up shows that purism is trying to do the right thing Engineering wise, that they can do within the time given.
From my understanding of her post and my own initial analysis of the fix it looks like it’s done to adhere to some EMI regulation probably emissions on a attached USB cable.
So even if the solder joints should fail it probably wouldn’t cause any Problem for the normal operation of the USB port but only a slight spike in it’s electromagnetic spectrum at the switching frequency of that SMPS.
In my opinion the answers we get from the Purism Staff are the answers from the actual engineers doing the work not some spokesperson who does not understand the technology behind it at all, but might be a way better wordsmith. I always prefer the engineer over the sales, PR or social media person.
I still want my Librem 14 asap even with that fix.
              
              
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