I was in a similar situation with a clothes dryer dying where the repair required a board that was half the price of a new one. A key difference is that I had a professional appliance repair guy look at it and he determined it needed a new board. Rather than buy a new machine like Jeff did, I made the opposite decision and paid for the board. It has been a few years since that and I have been happy with the result. I was spared from having a dryer that did not match the washing machine so I not only saved the half the cost of the dryer, but the cost of a new washer too.
The problem is the control board/electronics was not the only thing going south on that GE unit.
The door hinges were giving way, the door gasket had started to get iffy (not quite leaking yet, but it needs a new one), the top rack doesn't go in and out easily anymore...
All those parts aren't even made to be fixable anymore. At least if it's a pump or control board, those are relatively swappable. The rail system seems to be integrated into the sidewall!
On our old fridge (only like 12 years old), we lived for 6 years with a broken drawer because the slide for it is literally integrated into the inside wall... not repairable at all, without an entire new shell.
If we had a 30 year old device, it would probably all be repairable. Sadly, there seem to be very few consumer options (and nowadays even 'professional' options) that are made with longevity as a feature target.
We have had more luck with our appliances:
* The clothes dryer only needed a new circuit board that cost half of a replacement.
* The microwave only needed a new magnetron that cost the price of a new microwave oven. - Some would find this insane, but none of the new microwaves matched the kitchen decor and replacing everything to make it match the latest fad would have been truly insane.
* The refrigerator’s gasket needed to be pushed back into its groove when it started to come loose.
As for your dish washing machine, we had problems with our first one and heard from a repair guy that you really need to rinse the dishes before putting them into it. Ever since doing that, we have had zero problems with our machine. Maybe that might aid your new one’s longevity.
There are plenty of dishwashers now that will do fine without rinsing the dishes beforehand, even e.g. LG models that are not expensive.
Needing to rinse used to be the norm, but if one buys a dishwasher in the 2020s that won't work without rinsing in advance, one is getting scammed out of their money and time by lazy manufacturers, IMO.
In most modern appliances, if the board is "broken", it's usually just one simple controller and a few resistors. Usually takes only a few minutes soldering.
But in your case it sounds like a replacement was long overdue anyway. Better be careful with appliances that use water.
I live in an apartment building with a shared laundry room (but everyone has their own washing machines) in the basement.
Last month a neighbor's old washing machine - with many pre-existing issues - broke down. The dampeners for the drum failed, and once it started spinning, it just "walked" away, ripping the tap out of the wall.
The water flooded the entire basement a foot deep, including the storage units and underground parking. Took a full day before you could set foot in it again, a whole month before everything was truly dry again, and I lost a lot of things (including lots of old tech).
You were prepared to replace a functioning washing machine just to match a replacement clothes dryer?
If you have guest-facing laundry machines such as a the very trendy washroom/mudroom combo then matching machines is part of the aesthetic. People have spent more on less impactful decor improvements.
I've spent more than the cost of a laundry machine on interior paint for my walls.
Nowhere in the "training you to be an adult" did anyone warn me the cost of paint, nor selection anxiety around finishes, styles, nor the hell that is selecting a color. What _is_ 'Steamed Milk' and why can't I decide between it, 'Casa Blanca', and 'Aged White', and why does it cause so many disagreements?
My mother has been thrilled ever since I gave her a set of matching units. Repairing it to keep things that way was far cheaper than replacing both of them, or even one of them.