Comment by coldpie

I think you're right that for high end chips, it is worth the time to salvage it[1]. But I think that's the vast minority, like you said, most stuff being manufactured isn't at the cutting edge of consumer tech like GPUs are.

[1] They show a bit of the RMA/failed unit process towards the end of this surprisingly good GPU factory tour from Linus Tech Tips. There's some discussion of de-soldering and testing retrieved components. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS35VHEfFDU