I do hate the phones without the ability to change the battery. It makes things more complicated down the line when I have to replace it. I do always at least replace the battery once. I even use old phones as MP3 players. Good way to reuse them. Even had one do some folding funny enough. Though I can potentially live with that, no SD card is a deal breaker. The LG G Stylo is pretty efficient, they have the SD card slot right above the SIM card slot.
I can drop a 128GB card in there with ease. There is no real excuse to not include one, they are just trying to scam people into paying a huge amount more for more internal storage.
What makes for a good Android tablet in my opinion is the Dell ones. Still have my older Dell Venue 8 and it is rock solid even to today. They even have a premium OLED model, or you can go with a cheaper 10" one for $249. They all use Intel Atom processors, but surprisingly snappy. There is always usually the option of the Samsung ones to root them and flash a pure Android version.