Well, when you know Fjord® engineers who are paid to make a part last 100k miles and no more. (even if it costs more to manufacture) Well then, that kinda proves "planned obsolescence"

And, as an engineer type person, you look at something and see... this wasn't done to make this thing better, this was done to make it impossible to repair.

Take some of the new GiMiCk® trucks, where you have to pull the cab off the truck to get at important parts of the engine. Of course the factory technicians now have a cab crane.

Further, let us look at electronics. They have been made in such a way that specific components WILL burn out just after the warranty time. And there is nothing that you can do that will convince me otherwise. They "MIGHT" have saved 1¢ putting in the cheap component... maybe, but the way it was put in says, this was done on purpose.

And now we have Boogle® actually putting in code that makes the android software run slower over time.

So, from my perspective, planned obsolescence is real and in my face all the time. I can't go to HomeyDepot and buy a drill of the quality i did twenty years ago. They just don't exist there. However, we could do a lot better with computers if we make them in a way that allows one to use them for slower/non-important stuff as they become obsoleted.

If the CPU board in your typical laptop was something that looked like a hard drive. Then you could pull it out and plug it into another box and have it run a file sharing server, or a firewall, or even a music box. But no, it is a specialized thing that sits only in that old clunky case. And all of its connectors are proprietary. It doesn't have to be that way.