[mtlmtlmtlmtl]

The fact that democracies are starting to push for right to repair suggests to me that this preference is becoming much more prevalent. I think most people would be happy to save a ton of money being able to repair instead of replace expensive electronics.

Improved? Yes. Solved? Not really. Recycling is not a perfect process by any stretch. Producing less E-waste is just as important because global consumption of the resources that go into it is currently very unsustainable. E-waste management right now is not just unideal, it's more or less a joke. In 2021 less than 20% of E-waste in Europe was being collected and recycled. Recycling is hard. It requires changes at almost all levels of society. Designing repairable electronics on the other hand is essentially a solved problem that the industry has done less and less due to cost. Because the free market ultimately is best at optimising for lowering cost, and not other things like sustainability, safety, and so on. That's where regulations and taxes come in.

[AlmostAnyone]

Most people I know have a drawer full of working phones they don't like anymore. I really don't think the majority of people are looking for repairability as much as you think.

[mtlmtlmtlmtl]

First of all that's just anecdotal. Second I'm not convinced that's an effect of preferences as much as it is an effect of planned obsolescence making these devices useless in practice due to lack of software updates and upgradability.

And third, if we're sharing anecdotes, i also talk to a lot of people who ended up switching phones due to a dead jack or USB port, and have drawers full of fully functioning phones except for a single, cheap, broken component.