It's certainly possible that that's the reason for it, but it's predicated on various assumptions. It's also completely possible that the reason they're sellin

It's certainly possible that that's the reason for it, but it's predicated on various assumptions. It's also completely possible that the reason they're selling complete assemblies instead of individual ICs is because a) even they don't replace individual ICs, because it's fiddly, more likely to cause further problems, and requires keeping a stock of a lot of different individual chips, and b) they genuinely believe that there's not enough people who would be able to do that replacement (regardless of willingness) for it to be worthwhile. Personally? I think it's some of both.