It's part of current business models. Notice how many "products" you use that you don't just buy once but rather require you to pay a monthly fee and one that appears to be inexpensive but turns out to cost a crapload of money over the long term. And how many "products" do you pay for every month whether you use them or not. (I smell a Slashdot poll) We're rapidly falling into the gravity well of not actually owning anything. Now take a look at the TV ads for the Capital One Venture card that claims to have no blackout dates or limited seating and woohoo! double miles. What they don't tell you is that they give you a very low credit limit so that it takes two to four times as long to get one of these free flights. There is ALWAYS a catch somewhere. The consumer rarely, if ever, gets everything they were promised.
I, myself, have started writing the install date with a Sharpie on every bulb I put in so I have some real-world idea of lifespan. "Oh, it'll last 5000 hours...under normal use." What the hell is normal use? "Normal" is not a standardized unit of measure despite the implied definition. Light bulb manufacturing is ultimately a business not a love affair. If they made a bulb that lasted for 10 years "under normal use" and charged the same as an older technology that only lasted a year, that company would find itself out of business. This is also why Wonka's everlasting gob stopper will lose money, too. All joking aside, this is also why home solar panels are more of a scam than anything at this point. Lots of people don't know that they have a limited lifespan and gradually lose their efficiency yet the companies snow people into thinking that they're going to make money by selling energy back to the power company. Maybe. After losing money for 3/4 of the panels' lifespan.
It's mostly smoke and mirrors. Oh, and you need to pay an environmental impact fee for the smoke and are required by law to recycle the mirrors at your expense.