An even bigger underlying problem is that people keep buying into and buying all this garbage, instead of rejecting it en masse through purchases of older, second-hand products or new products among the brands (admittedly less and less out there) that don't do these kinds of things.

Neither choice is exceptionally hard, but a vast percentage of the consumer market just keeps subjecting itself to being treated like this even when alternatives exist.

I've managed to live more than 20 years as an adult in his own home without ever buying a brain-fuckingly hostile consumer product for my home. It's truly not hard to do, or even expensive.

Companies may not care about individual consumers who don't buy again, but only as long as there aren't enough of them to harm your bottom line. Once that changes, they do start giving a shit, because you can't simply forever extract rent from a shrinking pool of people who still tolerate your shit and still grow, no matter how much you squeeze.