It seems to be almost completely unique to some but not all types appliances.

There are almost no functional household products on earth I'd choose an older version of, in fact I don't think I own anything that I wouldn't prefer over the older version.

But for some reason stuff other than cars and power tools that experience significant forces seem to at times get worse.

I guess everything is probably built with the same tech over craftsmanship mindset and there's a few things where that results in things not lasting.