In one of the numerous HN stories about this thing someone pointed out (and I wish I had a link to this) that if iFixit can easily disassemble the machine (and they can) then there obviously isn't a problem here. No, end users aren't supposed to be taking it apart, but the complaints about the glue have to do with the potential for impacting recyclability, which is a whole different ballgame. If iFixit can remove the battery, so can recyclers.
Can they? The best I've seen was an image of one battery cell pried half off next to a comment saying they gave up trying to get the battery out safely.
