I would not consider it an improvement if the keyboard still stopped being useful in 1-3 years, but instead of just some keys no longer actuating and key legends being worn off, the case & keys had holes and cracks. That's like saying, well the internals are ****, so let's make the case and keys out of that biodegradable corn stuff, because the whole thing won't be usable in a year, anyways. Besides hard drives are similar. When a hard drive starts to go, you still have a lot of metal, etc. that hasn't worn at all. As long as the materials are being recycled, rather than sitting in a dump not degrading, it is ok.