I think we must live with this modern disease until price is no longer the driving force in manufacture.
I would hate to think that such faults could occur in medical equipment, but I fear they may not be immune.
Alas in most cases, the components are so close together that replacements which are not the same size cause huge problems. I had a motherboard that ended up with capacitors at odd angles on on their sides to fit the smallest replacements I could find. In high frequency applications (i.e. some of these switchers) the added inductance in the longer capacitor leads can apparently be an issue too
With this power supply, I am extremely limited in the width of the replacements, and somewhat constrained in height (I might be able to get away with an additional 2 or 3 mm).
Having only recently built a decent ESR meter, and also having only recently obtained a decent capacitance meter, I was *extremely* shocked at the results of measuring some of these capacitors. Even the least physically damaged was bad as the one which seemed to have the most minor of domed tops.
It makes me wonder how bad these capacitors get before they show physical signs.