US airports have "precheck" for essentially anyone who can pass a background check. Laptops and liquids can stay in bags there. *multiple* laptops sandwiched together in a bag in fact (2 is the official limit apparently, but I've seen more in practice). Either the X-rays machines for pre-check are extra strong and they have specially trained operators on them, or ...? (I've never been to Dubai, but the only airports where I've not had to remove laptops recently are in New Zealand for domestic flights, or the US with precheck.)
So now you're relying on the quality of background checks (haha, good joke).