It's 100% just firmware + crappy business model. Printers are hardly "complex" - a few very standard gear/roller/sensor based mechanisms we've built for 4 deca

It's 100% just firmware + crappy business model. Printers are hardly "complex" - a few very standard gear/roller/sensor based mechanisms we've built for 4 decades pretty identically with hardly any innovation. Besides far more complex frequent-use devices don't have such shit problems and experience. Nor is "you're out of blue ink, you can't print this b&w document" or "you didn't install the official $50 cartridge, but a third-party $10 one, you can't print" and such crap related even remotely to printers being "complex robots" or "requiring frequent supply reffils".