This is exactly what's holding me back from buying Surface devices. I rather stick to Thinkpads and Macs that I can replace/fix easily and which have great build quality/durability and available parts.
How come? MacBooks were the first laptops in becaming fix unfriendly and every vendor is actually following that lead.
The Surface is just as hard to repair, but without the official service options and fewer parts on eBay.
When I type in "Surface Pro battery replacement" I get a link to an iFixit page that informs me I have to undo the adhesive on the screen with a blow dryer to get at anything inside. Even an iPad is easier to open!
Assuming your problem isn't already solved, then Apple products are no easier than rival brands aside from being better built in the first place, having standardized parts, a simple range of models, and an active third party market.
I'm sure Microsoft has different levels of support, but I suspect everyone you're talking to is referring to Apple's standard warranty coverage. I'd rather have an Apple product with standard coverage than anyone else's product with "gold" or "platinum" or whatever they call it support. (From my experience of high-end corporate support the only benefit I found was that when I told the support person "assume I tried all that crap" (rebooting, reinstalling Windows, rebooting anything else on the network, etc.) he actually went off script and got to the useful stuff.
They weren't able to remove and replace the tip itself, so a few minutes later the CSR went to the back and brought me a new pen, and mentioned that it wouldn't appear as warranty service so I would be free to replace it down the road if necessary through "normal" repair channels.
This was without any additional warranty coverage. I can't speak for other Microsoft products, but they seem to go out of their way to support the Surface to provide a similar, if not superior, repair/replacement experience as Apple (I previously owned a MBP and had its screen repaired for free as well at an Apple Store).