Orac,
It's a throwaway culture
It is a throw away culture, you are quite correct; but not throwaway on quite such a vast scale. It is normal for industry to wish to recoup costs, and to make profits. Private industry, unlike the Public Sector, is unable to suffer losses for long. The costs are not quite so small as you might believe.
Thank you for the link; an interesting article. Fascinating how it is possible to get around the quantum effect. I was once involved, on the periphery, in quantum computing. It was fascinating.