Spill trays, albeit without the gutter, used to be a common feature, but they were a casualty of the thinness wars. A super-thin spill try can't hold much liquid, so what's the point? I like this solution from Lenovo.

Being able to pull a laptop's battery as soon as liquid was spilled on it was another great feature for survivability. Water doesn't directly damage electronics in and of itself. The damage is usually done by the short-circuits liquids facilitate. Disconnecting the battery before the liquid spreads through the device can prevent a lot of damage. I suppose the thinness wars probably killed this feature too.