My fault for over-generalising,
When I think back on classic gear I have owned... the Quad gear is particularly "repairable/maintainable"...
I also had/have Revox gear and various Japanese components - and in terms of repairability / complexity, I think they were probably much of a muchness
But current trends towards very small, surface mounted components, and a very high density of components, does not bode well for repairability down the line... And the trend towards replacement of entire circuit boards (or entire components) rather than doing repairs, is very very clear.
Started by Motorola in the early 90's after they worked out that the cost, to them, of a replacement mobile phone, was less than the cost of receiving and shipping, in addition to the logistical labour, and the physical repair time combined... in fact it cost them several times the value of a new phone to repair an old one...
Onkyo never even tried to do any component replacement on my failed 2008 HDMI board (which according to many DIY postings, could be fixed by replacing the caps) - they provided me a replacement board.... and some years later when that failed - offered me another replacement board for $900.... (!!) - I feel that this is now the norm.
Other than the occasional greybeards out there.... ( a few of whom are on here) - how many current AV techs/engineers even bother with component level repairs?