.... if you buy electronic components e.g. to save stringing Network wires (in this case using the house wiring to transmit) the components will usually last just a smidgen past the "discontinued!" point. Then the lucky customer gets to upgrade to the latest and greatest, in other words the cycle will start all over.
Which brings me to the "connection" with our model railroad in the garden. When I was running the CAN-Bus cable to every station that has so far been built and wired, many people thought it was overkill. Perhaps just as being able to disconnect the station trackage and the adjoining mainline on either side with a toggle switch right at each station, is also overkill. When you loose control with R/C, because the batteries are down or there is some interference, and the train just keeps on going it is very nice to have a fallback position. ;) :)
Yes, we've become very creative at ensuring we make programmed obsolescence reaches the desired outcome! So better safe that sorry, especially 'cause once those places become hard to reach, it seems to be precisely those points that decide to become trouble spots as time moves forward!
Better a fallback than a fall-over-the-edge position :*)