So, I saw something similar in semiconductor manufacturing in the runup to Y2K. Lots of equipment that needed replacing, could not normally get replaced becaus

So, I saw something similar in semiconductor manufacturing in the runup to Y2K. Lots of equipment that needed replacing, could not normally get replaced because upper management didn't want to pay for replacing old equipment, then wanted to spend only on shiny new fabs. However, Y2K was something that shareholders cared about. So equipment vendors realized that if they said, "no that old equipment cannot be Y2K fixed, however we can sell you an upgrade to it that is Y2K compliant", then the engineers at old fabs could get some new equipment finally. The engineers were happy to get newer equipment occasionally, the vendors were happy to sell new equipment (or at least more substantial upgrades) to old fabs as well as the new ones, and even management was ok with it because no one got fired for doing Y2K upgrades. It all worked well until Y2K actually came and went and then you couldn't use that trick to get old equipment upgraded anymore.