Honestly, isn't that just overthinking it? I get the whole "they cared about feel" thing, but come on, it's just some screws. If the design was so great, why did they stop doing it? Modern lenses work fine without needing a special manual and a torque wrench. It feels like people just romanticize old stuff and find reasons to call it genius. Maybe it was just the easiest way to assemble it back then, not some deep user experience choice.

Yeah, @paul286 has it right, it's all about the CO2 boost.

Always get a phase one environmental report before closing, it's cheap insurance against this exact mess.