Is electrical appliance parts' harvesting moral?

Agree, but that is typical DM journalism. A single transistor or even a diode is a semiconductor device. Of course what is actually being harvested are CMOS  microcontrollers and logic arrays, which we did not have inside white goods until quite recently. There is a bigger story of course, that is the utter failure of the cost optimised 'just in time' supply chain to handle a single point failure, namely that for all the 'makers' of chips, the vast majority are actually "fabless" and in effect buy time of one of very few foundries, to get their wafers processed for them.

The only semiconductor plants in the UK for example are either small scale research facilities or tooled up for niche processes.  These are not the ones with the delays, nor are the semi-manual prototyping lines from IBM and similar companies who can do an ASIC for you - at high cost mind, in a matter of perhaps 10 weeks. What is booked solid are the fully automated lines that knock out chips for pennies (as there are a few thousand chips per wafer) on unremarkable processes, like 5 or 7 layer metal over 300nm CMOS. Pretty much all of these are far eastern and run on such tight margins, that there is no slack capacity for the next few years. I have been quoted 108 weeks (yes, 2 years!!) for several 'catalog' parts, and this is far from unique - leading to all sorts of odd behaviour, like production surplus that would normally be scrap, perhaps including out of spec devices, turning up where they should not. These are very interesting times.

Mike

Is it not also true, however, that many of the programmable devices in domestic appliances may well be "one-shot" programmable?

Is it not also true, however, that many of the programmable devices in domestic appliances may well be "one-shot" programmable?