I remember fixing a graphics card years ago in the oven. Stripped all the heatsink and other removable parts off it and baked it for 15 mins or so. It reflowed the solider joints nicely and worked for several years afterwards.
I've got a similar setup with a SDR tuned to 433Mhz using rtl_433. Really useful as the range is massive and it picks up all kind of devices; temperature sensors, weather stations, tyre pressure sensors.
Yeah Zigbee routers need to be on all the time, if you turn them off, other devices will start to form connections with other mesh nodes and will fail unexpected when you flip the switch back on.
It's probably more that you don't want a corporation to dictate how you describe (brand) the sizes of a drink where we have near universal language for that purpose already.
There are other benefits to this too. With an electronic lock you can display the state of the toilet to other passengers on digital signage screens onboard the train. You could do this with physical locks but it would likely be more costly.
Those are two sides of the same coin though. More durable machines (solid, thick components for example) will be heavier and in the example of a washing machine will require more energy to move. Washing machines have also become much cheaper than 40 years ago, making them more of a disposable item.