Those that were around during the 1980s for the earliest days is SS conversion should remember remember the parts shortfalls of boards once Bally/WMS moved forward to more advanced systems in 1985 and the games were abandoned. Earlier SS games sat in warehouses untouched for decades.
Those that experienced the shortfalls and parting out of WPC boardsets after WMS closed in the 2000s, experienced the same. Many games were stripped, as the boards were worth more than the games themselves.
It took an average of 10-15 years for replacement boards, and the designs for backwards engineering were available, although many boards today for certain systems still remain NLA, such as 6803 Bally. Hence, part of the time design factor of consideration beyond stress testing of components.
Best of fortune with SPIKE games, which are already moving quickly forward.
If Stern stops producing replacement boards which they already have for WWE and KISS (less than three years later), owners will have a 285 lb paperweights, as some boards are unrepairable even with those with proper SMT workstations and correct experience with microscopes. We are not talking replacing LED boards here. There have been no indications to my operator who operates 1400+ games that anything Stern offers in training classes will provide the necessary experience to repair these boards and they require much more experience, and Stern outsources production, they do not do such actions presently.
Our senior board repair techician with over 30+ years experience dealing with every type of board repair since 1976, cannot presently fix these node or master MPU SPIKE boards for reasons mentioned predominantly to lack of availability of schematics, and size of traces in the MPUs and certain ICs (some of which are not easily commercially available at cheap cost). He is not an "enthusiast".
Those that deny the danger are being short sighted of past pinball history and experience, and most were not around to see it. Relying on promises by manufacturers of the future is just as dangerous. George Gomez does not control the direction of the company's future he manages production and remains an engineer and designer, not an electronics techician. Those former choices are not in his hands, as they are controlled by others.
Good luck.