I suspect that it has more to do with the desire to have tools. No one in the year 1900 would have said they did not want tools. They were essential, and even i

I suspect that it has more to do with the desire to have tools. No one in the year 1900 would have said they did not want tools. They were essential, and even if you had no particular need for a tool yourself, it was something to loan for favor trading. If someone would've have given them high quality tools, it'd be like gifting you or me a spaceship. Today? Who wants a tool, they live in places where they can't even keep more than the tiniest assortment of tools, and they use them infrequently enough for them to be more of a burden than an asset. If such people do not want tools, they sure as hell don't want expensive, high quality tools. Those are like the cheap ones, but they cost more and you cry more when you lose them moving to the next apartment. And if no one wants high quality tools... Well, no one's going to bother to sell them. If I'm honest, it's a little bit of what you say and the two effects play off on each other as it spirals down into the void.