> Much, much more profitable to simply drag your customers along forever and use every whale-milking technique ever designed.

That's true of many industries. If a light bulb manufacturer invented a light bulb that lasted 100 years they'd go out of business. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

Respectfully, I think you have the wrong wikipedia link for your lightbulb example [0]. Certainly for describing lightbulbs dying earlier than necessary to fuel replacement purchases.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

What's interesting about that is at some point the device lasts longer than it is in service for.

According to the internet, the "average kitchen" is remodeled every 10-15 years, so once your LED lights last longer than that, they're likely to get thrown away still working.

I've never met anyone who remodels their kitchen every 10 years.

That'd get expensive quick, a lame way to spend a million dollars over the course of a lifetime.

> In 2017, two million kitchens were remodeled (https://www.forbes.com/sites/reginacole/2020/11/08/stop-the-...)

There are about 70 million single family homes. If we count all dwelling units, we're at 140 million or so.

So the average kitchen lasts 35 years by that metric, to 70 years. I suspect the 10-15 year number counts "refreshes" and not just tear-down/rebuilds. Cabinets these days don't often last 35 years without some work.

Incandescent bulbs that last longer run cooler and thus are less efficient. Long life bulbs are a bad deal except in situations where changing them is a problem.