And when it’s $300-400 for a computer board, you might as well get a whole new machine.
The only way I’ve found to counteract that is to look for commercial or commercial-based units that share parts for years or more. But this can be harder for some classes of equipment ( commercial ovens are NOT at all like residential - they’re usually not insulated) but it can be a start.
But that's nobodies fault, as long as companies are required to release any protocols or specs for interop. You can't sensibly force companies to turn back the clock forever or stay in a business they don't want to be in. You can sensibly force companies to fully describe the products that they sell unless they are willing to continue to maintain them.
If they're required to release the specs of parts that they won't replace, Chinese factories would flood ebay with any of them that they think they can move 50K units of.
I agree that their support is the best of the smartphone vendors, but I would also welcome legislation that opens up hardware for arbitrary software at EOL.
When Apple decides it's done updating the 6S, I should be able to run Android or Linux on it. But they've locked down the hardware so it can only run iOS.
This seems to be more and more prevalent even in other areas like washing machines, microwaves and even cars. I don't get old parts. Even the service technicians throw up their hands and say "Just buy a newer model".