I agree that they accumulate, but not necessarily that they don't break. I've recently recycled a 600e (working), a T30 (working), and a T61 (motherboard dead). There was a massive build quality difference between the (brilliantly solid) 600e and the T61. I'm hanging on to an x61s for the time being, since it still works and it's quite small.

I still love the design ascetic of these laptops and I wouldn't be surprised to find myself buying one in the future.