Comment by pjc50
> market failure
Industrialization has massively optimized the "hot path" for any kind of production, largely by taking out the humans. It is incredibly cheap to manufacture consumer electronics - because everything is standardized and predictable and amenable to machine operation. This is what market success looks like.
The downside is that as soon as there is a deviation from the process, it gets more expensive.
It's worth thinking about what happens to repair inside the factory. Some percentage of units will be coming off the production line defective and fail initial QA. This is usually a very low percentage, well below 1%, because the entire economics of the factory depends on not having to do any rework. Even there, the technicians will take a look, determine if it's something that can be fixed quickly, or is a novel kind of failure, and if not just throw it away right there. Why? Because while you're standing there looking at it, another hundred have come off the production line. The broken one in your hand is not a unique snowflake.
At the start of a run though, this is an interesting and important job, because any failure is a novel failure. The first batch through the process should have high yield, but it might not, and then you stop the line ( https://mag.toyota.co.uk/andon-toyota-production-system/ ) and figure out what's happened (something misaligned? Defective inputs? Material problems? Design issue?)
The first batch will often get reworked and sent out as demo units.
What happens when a unit is defective and not easily repairable, maybe because the PCB itself was already defective?
Do technicians salvage the high value components, like the CPLD in this case, off the board? That chip alone is probably worth 15$.