My wife asks why I carry the gun in the house. I say it’s to shoot Decepticons. Wife laughs. Kids laugh. Toaster laughs. I shoot the toaster.

Maybe the Unabomber was a loony and also had a few valid points (broken clock is right twice a day, etc) also.

I think he had/has a lot of valid points.

nah, no caveat. dude was right.

Right in his critique, but he had nothing worthwhile on how to address it. Hence his resulting attempt of 1. Send bombs to technologists 2. ????? 3. Mass social uprising.

On this particular topic, basic software Freedom would be sufficient. But apparently enough people don't even care to make purchasing decisions based on anti-features. Or at the minimum, say hiring a technician to fix your brand new fridge as described in OP.

So, as seems to be the trend, most people are effectively content letting technology take away their agency. A small number of us can swim in the stream of navigating it so we don't get ruled over by it, but once you're doing all that work just to tread water it becomes awfully tempting to use your understanding to subjugate others.