Iirc that toaster was originally priced at what would be the equivalent of around $250 today. Things are designed cheaply today because that's what people are willing to pay for. It's not just the companies marketing cheaper shit but also the consumers buying it trying to save a few bucks or days of shipping instead of just getting something that lasts. Also, the Sunbeam T20 technical repair manual is detailed and freely available, because appliances at that time were meant to be able to be repaired if they did break. I used it when I bought mine to fix the spring mechanism that wasn't coming up all the way. These days companies don't even provide that information.