> which sacrificed its life span in the name of some modicum of energy savings. These marginal design choices are not the only way to get an efficient unit, since the fridge compressors from the 1940's and 1950's era were very efficient.

This one surprised me. I need to do some digging. Did they get worse after the 50s? I know that an old fridge I had in the basement, probably from the 80s/90s, was horrible in that regard. It pulled 300W when the compressor was running, and about 20W when idle (why!?). I threw it out a long time ago, so I don't have the exact figures anymore, but over a day it consumed at least 3 to 5 times as much as the bigger one in my kitchen that was new at that time. And it was notably cooler in the basement too, so that should've worked in favor of the old one.