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>All while LEDs never achieved anything close to the early claims of 100k hours and ended up only be comparable to incandescent in lifetime due to skimping on parts cost in the driver boards.

I don't know what bulbs you're using but I don't find this to be the case.

As an alternative example, the effect of subsidies on the solar panel industry has led to rapid improvements in cost and efficiency.

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Phillips, Cree, and all sorts of generics. If you have good electrical power you won't notice, but if your power is dirty, a loose neutral exists, etc, the driver boards do not last long. Whereas the simple no-circuitry halogens do. And this is especially true in enclosures.

It's another situation where the well off remain well off but for the poor the situation gets worse.

Anecdotally, I've replaced more halogens than any other kind of bulb. I'm assuming it was the fixture that was causing it. They were cheap but they guzzled power.

Planned obsolescence?

Big Clive of YouTube fame has shown many times over that modest changes to the driver board of commercial LED lights will allow them to last indefinitely. You have to wonder if the manufacturers don't know this.

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