I remember when my mom had a phone with a removable battery, she would drop it a lot and it would separate into a gazillion components but it wouldn't break. I miss the days
I feel like the parts separating had a lot to do with saving the phone as a whole. It must be absorbing and dissipating some of that energy from the fall rather than all that energy being directed into the phone when it stays together.
I remember my old phones would fly apart from a fall but they'd never suffer any meaningful damage.