Renewals, however, can be done by mail. But the photo still needs to be physically submitted with the paperwork. In years past the physical photo was laminated

Renewals, however, can be done by mail. But the photo still needs to be physically submitted with the paperwork. In years past the physical photo was laminated into the passport, and they needed two copies. These days only one is required and is scanned and printed into the passport page directly. So it's a step forward, but it's still a paperwork process and that's probably not changing for now.