> Sure, but why do consumers need the government to tell them this is a valuable aspect of the technology they've purchased. It they don't value it they don't value it, having the government mandate and tell you what's good for you helps no one in the long run.

I don't think it's that simple at all. There are lots of small reasons people right now act the way they do which in the aggregate makes it look as though they don't value repairability. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't prefer a world where repair was easy and cheap. It also doesn't mean that a world where repairs are easy and cheap isn't preferable to one where it isn't, in a bigger perspective (environmental, for one).