There's not that much in it!
I remember opening up an early large DV camera to get a stuck tape out. That was scary stuff. PCBs of every size and shape crammed into every spare space. Cables and wires running everywhere, only needed to move two boards to get to the transport.
The EX1 looks much easier to work on, not having a tape transport must make the design ever so much easier. Being able to cram so much functionality into a chip also cuts down on the maze of wires.