I think part of that reluctance to just tear into it yourself, or if not you then any number of ordinary people you know equivalent to yourself (ie, not an elec

I think part of that reluctance to just tear into it yourself, or if not you then any number of ordinary people you know equivalent to yourself (ie, not an electronics repair tech by trade, anf if not you then your brother, wife, kid, co-worker, etc), is actively created by companies that sell stuff. And if you're a bit too brave and self determinant, and overcome the soft pressure like the warranty sticker or the manual or peer pressure, then there is always the insurance based fear of liability for burning down a house and killing someone (by doing a dead simple repair on a blender or something) to keep you in line. "Was saving that $30 worth killing someone?" Well in reality there is no such question and so attempting the repair is not answring "yes" to it. But for most people it's a real factor keeping them afraid to touch anything. I'm saying, your reluctance isn't likely really just your own natural reluctance, it's pretty much instilled and reinforced in a bunch of indirect deniable ways. Only a few years ago it was perfectly normal for almost anyone to do all kinds of things that are practically unthinkable to people from one or two generations later. The human animal didn't actually change that much to create such different behavior, so the difference must be explained some other way.