It's hard to overstate how screwed hardware design and prototyping would be if companies like digi-key went under. There's only a few electronics distributors like them around and most of them are centered in the US.
An R&D firm I know is constantly spinning low volume prototype designs with wildly different BOMs; they treat Arrow reps like North Korean spies.
But another crank-turning design firm I know trusts Arrow to do BOM reviews because of how many times they’ve come through with a reel of hard-to-find parts, making a design manufacturable in a pinch, unlocking sales.
The exact same Arrow rep serves both firms, I’ve never figured out why he is treated so differently.