Agreed.

Blame this mess on the early manufacturers who designed lifetime products -- raising expectations to unreasonable (for modern MBA's) levels. Now, advances in engineering allow us to design products with predictable warranty costs. After the (ever shorter) warranty expires, the manufacturer is off the hook and more than happy to sell us a new product with more features, rather than put us through the hassle of repair. ("would you like that delivered tomorrow?") Further, with much shorter market life ("new, improved!" designs every year or so) and more models in the line, stocking replacement parts is a big expense -- complicated by some local taxing authorities which tax the value of the inventory. I've had manufacturers tell me stories of sending perfectly good repair parts inventory to the crusher, simply to get it off the books.

When I was barely a toddler my parents bought a refrigerator. In my early teens we replaced the starter capacitor and door gasket. After all the kids were college educated and gone (I'm the oldest), that refrigerator was still cooling (but needed a new door gasket). As I recall, the washing machine only lasted about 30 years. In that time we had to replace the drum gasket (it was a front loader) and the rotary control.

Contrast this with modern landfill fodder that is unsupportable after a few years.