Edit: I will probably do a complete write up on my blog as I changed a few things between 6 and 7. Should be posting it within a week at https://sschueller.github.io/
Which is a shame if true. KiCAD is a gem of open source and holds a lot of mindshare with nerds and hackers.
https://github.com/Digi-Key/digikey-kicad-library
I've been using JLCPCB's Global Sourcing service a lot recently. I can get DigiKey/Mouser parts sent to JLCPCB's inventory for assembly. The shipping is a bit slow but it beats having to manually assemble a few components not available at JLCPCB.
When I order parts for a project, my baseline rule is "order 3: one to break, one to use, one to kick around in your parts drawer for next time". Then I go back through my order and increase quantities of parts I know that I'll be needing again for future projects until the order total is high enough to qualify for discounts on shipping.
Heh. I'm halfway there. I have parts in my bins that I bought 40 years ago. I even recently discovered I have an old 8085A microprocessor from the 80s left over from the first computer I built.
Mauser and digitkey are very expensive to ship here (Switzerland) so unless my order is larger it's not worth it for small project that don't need any guarantee on where the part came from.