in a nutshell bbforks,
we live in a throw away society
they design everything now with a predetermined lifespan just for the sake of insuring future sales at OUR expense.
i hate to say it but its all about the money, engineers dont seem to be as concerned for durability anymore as they are with innovation and technology advancement. And i use that term advancement lightly due to the fact that most of what iv'e seen on the market may look more advanced but durability is crap.
As you said, electronics are not very durable nor are they designed to withstand harsh environments. I suppose you can thank the government and EPA for that because they are forcing the manufacturer's of these components to make them from non-hazardous materials now. They just dont seem to hold up near as well as past components. Not to mention the engineers do not consider things such as voltage spikes in thier designs so of course the consumer has to deal with the headache of replacement and/or repair. Just another way of insuring the future sales of parts i guess, or maybe they are just banking on the consumer just throwing up thier hands and buying another unit. Its frustrating to say the least.
I'm like you, i'm from the old school era back when they built stuff to last and what i'm seeing happening today has me very concerned as to the way our society is heading. We want to save the planet but yet we are moving towards designing things that are more 'throw away' type things? More concerned with making money instead of making things to last?
Seems to me we're going backwards instead of moving forward. In the long run i think we will all regret the mess we are creating for our kids in the future, but then again we will not be here so who cares, let them fix it? This seems to be the mentality of alot of folks i encounter these days and it makes me sad. I feel sorry for whomever has to deal with this when we're gone.

Sorry for the off topic negative observation guys but its just an observation i've made over the past few years in response to bbforks comments.