Otherwise the first advice looks like a 1st-world solution that independent 3rd-world developers can't deploy. Could early-stage companies even expect this from their investor/connectors?
- AliExpress/Alibaba/Taobao instead of Digikey
- tear down a mass produced product that has approximately the right size of part that you're looking for and see what you can find. If you're super lucky there'll be a generic part number on the item that you can use to do some research with. If you're less lucky, take some measurements (dimensions, RPM, torque, voltage, current, wavelength, whatever) and start looking around to see if there are manufacturers making generic versions of that part.