Devil's advocate here, Rossman cites that only a pin needed to be bent back in the case of the flickering display. Apple has to provide a warranty on their service, therefore they want the solution that is least likely to break again. Bending the pin may not be good until the lifespan of the device, it may break off next time the machine is dropped or put down a little hard.

Of course, any sane person would have a discussion with the customer about whether or not they wanted to try a simple fix versus replace the whole damn thing, which is the crux of the overpricing argument.

The other argument is cost, Apple faces massive short supply on the Genius Bar, so having more bodies that can do simpler repairs faster (ie blind part swaps) seems to have won out over having technical talent properly diagnose and repair the machine.

They could have alleviated this through their authorized service providers, but hobble them with massive fees, high part prices and overall little trust (often being last in line to receive technical documents and training for new devices). Just check out Linus Sebastian's iMac Pro saga for an insight.

Overall, it's a massive system orchestrated to give Apple maximum control over the entire process, and nowhere near enough supply for consumers. It's now actively hampering their experience, leaving people without the super glossy Genius Bar experience or a cheap option at all. I believe they've just put too few resources into this area and are too greedy to loosen the stranglehold of control for third parties to pick up the slack. Directly in contrast to their whole "we want these products to last" argument from the recent iPhone release keynote.