[funnyflamigo]

I don't think so because there's rarely a drop in replacement unless you designed your board ahead of time for multiple options (of course exceptions exist, there's drop in replacements for many devices including the esp8266 I mention below).

But for example, an ESP8266 hasn't really lost much value in the past few years, and is unlikely to lose significant value if it sat on a shelf for another few years, so they don't mind a bit of an overstock.

Meanwhile the current year car model will lose a ton of it's value when the next model comes out so they don't want to risk over-stocking it.

[michaelt]

If you've got a low-chip-count product and an agile business structure, when Chip A is unavailable you can respond by redesigning your PCB to use Chip B.

But if you've got loads of chips on different boards from different suppliers, a structure suitable for a large business, lengthy supply chains, complex certification requirements, and you can't afford to pay much more? Well, that's going to make things quite a bit more difficult :)