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There's probably something to do with volume and mfg capacity. The TV companies were doing everything they could and still not meeting the demand for TVs, so they might as well make them repairable. Signals quality. But now we have much more ability to make TVs than demand for TVs, and making them not repairable stimulates demand.

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I'd say: Shortages after the world wars, combined with the teething problems of new technology made customers acutely aware and capable of repairability. That lesson is now forgotten.

It also wasn't universally true. E.g. the story of Mad Munz creating TVs that worked only for 90% of the customers (who had good enough reception and needed less signal cleanup). His idea was to capture 90% of the market with a cheaper product, while shafting 10% of the consumers and shamelessly send them to other vendors when they reported their troubles and he already had their money.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/madman-mun...

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