It's really amazing how I quoted a repair shop owner saying the problem is parts availability and got two responses basically saying "nuh uh."

I have a more recent personal experience. My parents refrigerator went out. The repair man came out and diagnosed it as a bad inverter board and he'd get the part and come back in a few days. Great! The next day he calls my dad and tells him the part isn't available from the manufacturer so he can't actually fix it.

So I helped my dad go on an internet search and we eventually found an aftermarket (counterfeit?) board and installed it ourselves. My parents were thrilled they didn't have to buy a new refrigerator, but the repair guy got paid for the diagnosis but didn't make any money for the repair. I don't know if that's a long term sustainable business.

This is why when I replaced my appliances I chose GE/Hotpoint. GE does their own in house parts and service, and in particular Hotpoint is easy to fix with a screwdriver.