Sales men taking advantage
I think it might be more of the stores fault. A lot of these sales men are straight out of High school with absolutely no knowledge of anything mechanical let alone laundry. They often do what the store tells them to which is sell the high end models as much as you can. Ive been approached by plenty of sales people. Most of them have no clue what they are saying doesn't even make sense. And the part that makes me laugh out loud is when some get defensive when you prove them wrong. I just ask them how many vintage machines have they restored or repaired to date.