It is not pedantic or contrarian, though. The points they are making are real issues.
The right to repair is important, but from an environmental point of view it is not that relevant. Besides, what the current demographic and economic trajectory of the world, huge populations are accessing the middle classes, with the associated increase in consumption. Even with perfect repairability (which does not solve the issue of discarded parts or plain broken devices, the amount of which is proportional to the number of devices in use), things physically cannot get better. The best lever we have right now is to reduce consumption. It’s about as credible as perfect repairability, but is much more effective. “Do we really need these 6 phones, 3 computers, 2 cars, and microprocessors in every light bulb” is a more pressing question than “can I fix my phone with a torx screwdriver”?
Repairability is a good thing, but it is only part of the battle, and not the most critical.
> The quote was "completely irrelevant". How is that not contrarianism?
That was a slight hyperbole. It is not “completely irrelevant”, merely irrelevant. Contrarianism implies bad faith and knee-jerk reactions. They provided arguments, which you are free to debate or question.
> Ah, consumerism. And what magical lever do we have to reduce that?
Well, realistically? None. Not before it gets significantly worse anyway. It’s still more realistic than getting out of this hole by repairing stuff. The orders of magnitude are just not there.
Again, repairing devices is a good thing. But it’s not a panacea and won’t solve that specific problem.
It is not pedantic or contrarian, though. The points they are making are real issues.
The right to repair is important, but from an environmental point of view it is not that relevant. Besides, what the current demographic and economic trajectory of the world, huge populations are accessing the middle classes, with the associated increase in consumption. Even with perfect repairability (which does not solve the issue of discarded parts or plain broken devices, the amount of which is proportional to the number of devices in use), things physically cannot get better. The best lever we have right now is to reduce consumption. It’s about as credible as perfect repairability, but is much more effective. “Do we really need these 6 phones, 3 computers, 2 cars, and microprocessors in every light bulb” is a more pressing question than “can I fix my phone with a torx screwdriver”?
Repairability is a good thing, but it is only part of the battle, and not the most critical.