There's a lot of smart and well-off people on HN that are not tinkerers. This article scratches the itch for tinkerers who could envision walking through the described steps themselves. On the flip side, this would be a non-problem to others, simply purchase the other thing and stop griping about manufacturer's cent-saving BOM hacks.

Anyway, if the problem becomes big enough, some individual/organization will see the market opportunity somewhere, hopefully.