You laugh, but my previous washer didn't rinse all the detergent out normally and I had to run every single batch a second time with no detergent added to keep my skin from getting puffy, usually in the most inconvenient places.

Only now, with my new washer that lets me do 2–3 "extra" rinse cycles, do I not have to age my clothes twice as fast with duplicated washing.

If the laws/regulations prohibit making washing machines that properly clean and rinse clothes, then the laws/regulations should be repealed.

It is possible that machine was restricting the amount of water artificially, to comply with better standards. I did an experiment with mine - you need to time when washing cycle ends and before rinsing starts, and then top up the water inside through the detergent compartment, all 1-2 liters in total. It indeed improves rinsing, but is very annoying to do in practice (hard to time correctly), so I stopped after a few tries.

Maybe you were using too much detergent? People have a tendency to use way more than is actually needed.

I'm not sure it is. The EU has increasingly strict energy efficiency requirements for washing machines that are frankly stupid - they're pretty efficient already, so the way that manufacturers have improved efficiency through ludicrously long multi-hour wash cycles that keep on getting longer (there's apparently a direct relationship between the length of the wash cycle and how little energy can be used to clean clothes). The efficiency gains make washing less useful and consume more of people's limited time to the point that the cycles those numbers are based on don't really seem to be intended to be used.

Why it is silly to prohibit regulators from forcing people to not have a washing machine? (because this is what happens when you let regulators enforce draconian "green" measures in communities where people don't have enough wealth to buy the "green" equipment they are enforcing).

I'll bite.

Putting regulations on new products doesn't influence the existing ones.

If someone can't afford a new washing machine without regulation, regulations won't change a thing. They'll still have to buy second hand.

The regulations won't send the FBI to retrieve the existing washing machines not meeting the new regulations. People are still going to use them/sell them as long as they work.

Meanwhile efficiency regulations will reduce the cost of use. I bought a new washing machine at the beginning of the year to replace the one I had for more than 15 years. The new one uses a third of water and about a third of electricity compared to the older one. Given how much the cost of electricity is rising those last years, the savings are huge.

Also, new washing machines have never been cheaper. Sure, their lifespan is probably going to be shorter, but planned-obsolescence is another matter. But I suspect that you could provide the same arguments against regulations intended to fight planned-obsolescence.

How could a technically-oriented person use "green" (with the quotation marks) to talk about efficiency regulations is quite surprising to me.