> Not sure why "some assembly required" is so popular in higher end keyboard circles.

I have heard that Betty Crocker cake mix initially wasn't very popular. Housewives didn't like it. They reformulated it so that it wasn't "just add water" - you had to add an egg as well. That made it a lot more popular, because people could still feel like "I made that cake".

I wonder if this isn't the same. "I built that" gives more pride of ownership than "I took it out of a box.".