The need for ECC has nothing to do with maintenance or proper administration.
You really don't need ECC as normal user, most of the time bit flips won't really hurt you. However, if, for example, you run long-running tasks like 3D rendering or Physical Simulations you may want ECC just to be sure your OS won't be killed by a bit flip in the wrong section. Your photo gallery or music collection however will most likely never be hurt by something like that, so still, consumers don't need to waste their money on overpriced ECC memory.
> Your photo gallery or music collection however will most likely never be hurt by something like that
Citation needed that people don't care about their photos and music. Human error and storage failures are more likely sources of loss but we're a big industry and can make progress on more than one thing at a time.
> consumers don't need to waste their money on overpriced ECC memory
If ECC went mainstream, prices would drop as volume increased.
You really don't need ECC as normal user, most of the time bit flips won't really hurt you. However, if, for example, you run long-running tasks like 3D rendering or Physical Simulations you may want ECC just to be sure your OS won't be killed by a bit flip in the wrong section. Your photo gallery or music collection however will most likely never be hurt by something like that, so still, consumers don't need to waste their money on overpriced ECC memory.