People who want it to last.
That’s a large part of why “things aren’t built the way they used to,” is wrong. People don’t want to pay a lot for appliances now, so they get built with cheap parts to meet that price point.
There were cheap garbage appliances in the old days too.





Yeah, those suckers were the equivalent of like $2k today.
But even cheap appliances can last years if repaired. Washers and dryers are pretty simple to fix (electric only), and it’s cheaper than you might think for common issues. Lid switch replacements, drum rollers, heating elements, sensors, etc. run like a max of $50, and you can always find a YouTube video of someone replacing the part in the exact model you own.