I wonder how long the argon actually lasts in practice. The industry claims 20 years under normal conditions.
Yeah, the gas leaks out after a while, then your double pane glass fogs up on the inside and costs $$$ to replace.
To fog up, it has to pass water molecules, which are way larger than gas molecules. I've seen only a few IGUs fog up, all of them had clearly visible damage, and they are ubiquitous here, with many 20+ years old.
And the IGUs themselves aren't very expensive either (unless they're over 1sqm individually), frames indeed are.
My parents redid their home with a dud batch from a company that offered 30 years guarantees. Company was out of business within 10 years and 20 years later ~60% of them are fogged. Still very energy efficient.
The seals on them degrade and leak.
I've had a lot of them fog up with no damage.
I've seen a video about fixing that yourself. Seems like a missing market opportunity, since replacing windows costs many thousands, so you could probably charge hundreds to provide this as a service.