Right - the bulbs last forever. Except, they DON'T!
Those CFL's that are supposed to last 5 to 10 years tend to burn out before the first year. The LED's that are supposed to last 10 to 20 years do a little better, but I've replaced them. Some have lasted as little as 2 years, others 5 years.
Keep in mind, these things weren't around 20 years ago. Maybe - oh - 12 years ago, possibly 15 I first started noticing the things on heavy trucks. Only 3 or 4 years ago, they started hitting the market bigtime in flashlights and such. They've been in computers and various displays a little longer. The wife's "Alien" computer has about six of those things in it, two are burnt out - at about 4 years of age.
If quality control were reliable, I might agree with those "cost savings". Since QC sucks, I simply do NOT see those savings everyone talks about.
One of the networks ran a thing during the news hour on those CFL's, showing that my experience is about normal.