I once had my sales agent complain that my products were TOO reliable. They didn't get service calls to repair them, thus they didn't make any money from service! I used premium quality components and conservative design and my sell price reflected that. They got what they paid for.

Electros have always been a problem for me - the production guys always seem to buy cheap ones. In most cases the electro is not too critical so the substitution has no ill effects. Other times it's the difference between the device working or failing early. Looking at PC power supplies - size is a good determinant of the 'quality' of the capacitor - some of the 220uF 200V caps are tiny! But at the buy price of PC power supplies - something has to be cut. The market wants power supplies at $20, and the factories make to that price point. The fact that the power supplies last only a couple of years, well that's accepted. Same 'o' with monitors and electrical appliances. As engineers, we are employed for economic reasons - and sometimes to economic side dominates in the decisions we make. Think of the automotive engineers! My car has three idler bearings bolted to the engine block - no problems except that due to the heat, the lubricant boils off and the bearings only last 100,000kms - that's a service part. I'm sure the engineer who designed this was well aware of the life of the bearing and it was calculated.

It all comes back to $. We get what we pay for (most of the time at least).