Good products are still out there but there are very few trustworthy sources of reviews that actually test the durability. Project farm comes to mind as a rare example. Consumer reports does a decent job but puts it behind a paywall.
Because Adam Smith's invisible hand has torn the veil away from our faces and revealed that humans are so piss-poor at long-term thinking that we'll happily pay ten cents less for a washing machine that breaks down twice as quickly.
Even ideal markets don't optimize for quality, they optimize for utility. And the revealed preference of the human utility function is "penny wise, pound foolish".
Good products are still out there but there are very few trustworthy sources of reviews that actually test the durability. Project farm comes to mind as a rare example. Consumer reports does a decent job but puts it behind a paywall.