You are reading a single comment by @Diamond_Supercool and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
Diamond_Supercool-
The short answer to 'why bolted stays?' seems to be 'because that's what trad roadsters (Raleigh DL-1 &c.) had, and no-one bothered to change'.
Some models of full oil-bath chaincases need the seatstay unbolting at the dropout to get them off, but that wasn't universal. It may have been cheaper from a manufacturing and assembly perspective, and it potentially allowed replacement of damaged stays, but I've not seen a definitive answer.
Thrustvector
I have seen Dutch bikes with a split seat- and chainstay at the dropout, which allows for a tyre and tube change that way; mine has the old-skool bolted seatstay, but I think it has normal chainstays, so that's no use for a tyre change . Linear tubes are also more popular over there.
Apparently there exist workshop tools called 'Dutch pliers', which are used to spread the rear dropouts enough that the rear wheel will drop out(!); usually the bending is within elastic limits, and as you're normally running Marathon+ or something equally impervious on there, it should hopefully be a once-every-couple-of-years kind of job...