This is a good point. The light switches in my grandmother's house (two-button affairs from the 1920s) still work in 2014. My 1950s gas oven still works. Simplicity and longevity are valuable attributes in a piece of hardware (a house) with a 50-year design life. (I replaced most of my X-10 switches with photocells and manual dimmers after seeing the light on this one.)