Yep, it sucks to be at a landlord's mercy to determine how nice the place you live remains over time. Things will wear out. If you own the place, yes, it's expensive to fix that stuff up. But if you don't own the place, you may very well just be stuck with it.

From time to time I drive by the place I rented for quite a few years almost a decade ago now. All the visible stuff that needed maintenance when I lived there is still just as it was when I moved out. Maybe they've fixed up the (worse) interior issues, but probably not.