Yeah, I wonder if this is a US specific problem, because there seem to be plenty of "stable" established household appliance companies in Europe that are perfectly happy living on the margins of products that only get bought when the old model fails.
In this particular case I bought a simple "one knob for power, one for time" model at the local Swedish supermarket for the equivalent of about fifty dollars (because it was in the discount) just a few years ago. It was during covid times so it can't have been more than three years. It works fine, precisely because it's dumb.
They don't sell that model any more, but another local chain has the equivalent for (at current exchange rates) about 90 dollars[0].
In this particular case I bought a simple "one knob for power, one for time" model at the local Swedish supermarket for the equivalent of about fifty dollars (because it was in the discount) just a few years ago. It was during covid times so it can't have been more than three years. It works fine, precisely because it's dumb.
They don't sell that model any more, but another local chain has the equivalent for (at current exchange rates) about 90 dollars[0].
[0] https://www.clasohlson.com/se/Fristaende-mikrovagsugn-vit/p/...