Honestly, I think the biggest barrier in the West is just simply access to components and consumables, especially since places like the US are so geographically

Honestly, I think the biggest barrier in the West is just simply access to components and consumables, especially since places like the US are so geographically spaced out. It's much cheaper to do just-in-time inventory and walk across the neighborhood to buy (say) DRAM, BGA balls, and BGA stencils, than (in the West) to have to worry about ordering and stocking them yourself. (Trust me, I'd be learning how to do these repairs if the costs weren't almost doubled by shipping alone in the US.)