Quoted from Zablon:

I think the part of this hobby that is the most questionable is what does a distro actually do in the digital transaction age? I've done both direct and through distros, and in both situations I dealt with the manufacturers not the distros when something was needed. We don't like to make car comparisons, but in most products that are not cars, you get replacements if your purchase is broken or a lemon. That isn't the case with pinball. What I've heard is that distros can help with getting issues resolved, but I don't necessarily think that is the case these days. The customers have little leverage anymore because the companies keep selling out. This also means the distros have little leverage because they don't actually 'need' your business, they have others lined up waiting and they aren't sitting on stock for months for almost anything.
I'm sure there are scenarios where they shine, don't get me wrong, I just think that their involvement is more heavily around operators than home owners and I'm not sure the transition to service to the homeowner is as apparent as it is to operators because business has changed over the decades.