Why can't a new competitor come in, make non-shitty products, and make billions? Is there really a grand planned-obsolescence conspiracy, or is this a mixture of survivorship bias, recency bias, and a strong imagination?
By the time you have a reputation for quality products, you're often acquired or out of business. There are actually cases of this in some specialty equipment.
Really: I’ve talked to commercial product managers who bemoan the fact that all their customers are perfectly happy with the 10-20 year old instrument they have. There’s no revenue there.