Like, whichever Windows got rid of the start menu (8?) largely made me realize that I was barely using my start menu anyway and mostly would click it, go to programs, and then type the name of what I wanted.

I switched to 8 effortlessly, because ever since Vista I've been typing in first couple of letters of a program instead of looking it up in a structure of installed applications, so nothing changed for me: something like press Win, type "visual" and press enter.

We tend to not “build” things because… repairing your TV is more effort than it is worth.

Not all the time, some stuff is still built fixable and some disassembly, diagnostic, and some soldering if any at all, and then reassembly is all it takes to make thing work again. Some failed contact, some blown capacitor, those are easily fixable, but we lot don't even try to look inside.

Same with cars where the vast majority of maintenance is either less needed (because of better tolerances on hoses and the like) or is just swapping out parts rather than hammering your radiator pump until it fits.

But a bunch of stuff is made that way you can't reasonably fix it if it breaks. Static kills the mainboard of your TV? You are stuck without another mainboard (finding a new TV CPU and resoldering BGA is out of my scope). Car manufacturers stopped making small parts and started providing large chunks. Oh, something wrong with a bearing in your RWD joint? Well, order a whole RWD module for $1000, who would want to change a bearing? Ugh.

I think there are two reasons behind all that: malicious planned obsolescence and less blatantly malicious trying to reduce costs by manufacturing bulk parts (like using an IC controller instead of a bunch of transistors and caps on a board) or molding plastic cases that are quickly and cheaply snapped together instead of screwing them.

But some stuff shouldn't be thrown in trash as soon as it stops working. Reawaken your dormant childish curiosity by disassembling it like you did with your toys, and try to diagnose the fault, you may end up fixing it.