It is becoming more open and less expensive. The point is that the tools for prototyping, simulating, assembly, and manufacturing are becoming much cheaper. Al

It is becoming more open and less expensive. The point is that the tools for prototyping, simulating, assembly, and manufacturing are becoming much cheaper. Along with the fact that people are sharing more. I agree that there is no substitute for RTFM. That will always be required. Although, it's layers of abstraction in hardware too. Just like software libraries and frameworks: if someone has published a circuit that includes some subsystem I need, I can very likely ctl+v much of it into my own design without having a full understanding of it. Which is the entire reason why an industry around ICs can exist at all. It's just that more people are sharing now than ever before. Pick and place machines are now becoming accessible at low cost (see Fire Pick Delta/LitePlacer). This addresses many of your assembly errors and mitigates costs. I can't construct a reasonable argument against your points E, F, and G, which seem to all equate to "something unlucky and magical happened that broke your prototype".