Members of the UUC do not "sell" the wife. They use obfuscation, mis-direction, and the phrase "What? No, it's always been like that." to achieve their goals. Buck up, mister, and follow the path.
Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful replies.
I am now more depressed than ever!
My last fridge was from 2011, stainless. It was magnetic. Must just be a brand specific thing.
That’s kind of my point. It’s all subjective. I’ve have the opposite experience. LG has been the most reliable appliances I’ve bought 
Wow the reality of fridges today sure sounds depressing. So glad our Whirlpool built in 1995 is still running, but I can hear that one of the compressor springs is broken. Hoping it keeps on keeping on.
My father in-law bought a fancy LG 4 years ago and it died after 3 years of use. He replaced it with a basic Frigidaire at the recommendation of his appliance repairman.
The GE refrigerator my parents (now deceased) bought in 1954, when I was 4, is still running in my brother’s garage.
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Maybe they started bringing magenetism back based on customer feedback...when we bought ours (2003) we actually took a magnet to the store with us (for me, my wife was against it) to see if we could find one we liked that was magenetic. As I remmber few, if any, were magnetic at that time.
If you look long enough, I think you'll find horror stories for every brand of appliance available. It can make selecting a new fridge very frustrating. I suggest you check the online reviews and exclude brands that have lots and lots of similar complaints. Find something you like, and go for it!
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The smart money is on waiting until next years' models. They will be even better with more convenience and smarter home integration.
Or maybe, wait for next-next years' models, I hear they will have have even more smarts and convenience.
Or maybe... 
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If they keep on the path they are on now, in a couple years fridges will be nothing more than a brittle plastic cooler that costs $5K and dies after a year.
There is a probably a late 40s era fridge in my Moms garage that still works. We used it in the 1990s as our regular fridge when the newer 70s one died. It is so old there is only a small freezer inside like a modern mini-fridge. I think it is a Hotpoint? Anyway, it is a huge energy hog, but it is so simple there is nothing to really even fail.
Lol. I like finding new things to build! Got a fridge, stove, and dishwasher on the way to integrate! I used to work for a company building car wash automation systems and we’d have to reverse engineer equipment sometimes to integrate with it. It got me hooked on reverse engineering.
By far the most expensive smart home project I’ve done. @cwwilson08 But also the one my wife loves the most. She wasn’t happy with the price tag but loves the results! The whole bathroom is automated, fan tied to shower, lights in the shower, heat lamp turns on when you get out, heated mirrors kick on. It even puts the water heater in high demand mode while the shower is on. It’s my best example of smart home tech making my house better and not just a gimmicky thing!
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Literally, truly, honestly, laughed out loud. Excellent. 
So a bit less than 12 months after my refrigerator evaporator's ice-up, Hubitat's monitoring of the temps in the freezer half of my beloved (but flawed) Samsung side-by-side showed them climbing into the double digits. Alll the while the Samsung's exterior display continued to show -4F for both set and actual temperature... for some reason the built-in display didn't reflect the actual compartment temperature until I tried power-cycling the refrigerator. Glad I got the early warning from the Iris V2 contact sensor inside.
Unfortunately an inspection of the freezer's evaporator coils showed just a tiny bit of frost on the topmost coil. Evidently that's bad news (should be a light coating of frost on all the coils) and indicates a sealed system failure or weak compressor. And a few days later the refrigerator side temps began a similar climb.
In searching for a replacement (counter depth 22 cubic foot side-by-side, in-door ice and water), I'm surprised to see that current models from the major brands all seem to use quite a bit more energy (roughly 640kwh/yr) vs. the claimed 565kwh of my 2010 model, even those models with digital inverter compressors and R600A refrigerant, both of which supposedly contribute signficantly to energy savings.
My old 2010 Samsung did have a variable speed compressor but AFAIK it was not a digital inverter type and it used R134A; R600A is supposed to be 50% more energy efficient. I'm puzzled by the fact that the 2020 equivalent Samsung (which won the Energy Star 2020 Emerging Technology Award for its use of 'advanced adaptive compressor') uses 14% more energy than a decade old model.
Did the testing methodology for power consumption change recently? A little Googling shows that the criteria (% better than federal standard) to earn the Energy Star designation did in fact change a few years ago, but didn't turn up any changes relating to actual measurement of energy consumption.
i believe this is becuase the "more efficient" form of freon that the older compressors used has been banned due to environmental issues/ozone depletion when it leaks..
My experience has been good with lg.. in 3 differnt locations we have them for about 5 years now with no issues..
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Ah yes.. now I see that R134a was banned effective January 2021 in domestic appliances (though its still allowed in chillers until 2024).
R600A does have a lower operating pressure, so it seems to make sense that it would take less energy to compress. Sounds scarier when it is called isobutane... it's flammable.
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So you can grill as well! 
!
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Just FYI for anyone looking for Whirlpool appliances. Out of stock for months for everything at all the big box and appliance stores BUT looked at Best Buy and got it delivered that week. Turns out they are a whirlpool company and get stuff when nobody else does. NOBODY at any big box or appliance store told me about BB having stock. Hmmmm
Why would they? 
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In the category of N=1 I had a horrible experience with my GE Profile side-by-each fridge. I had a couple of problems that I had fixed, and then the water dispenser froze. I had the guy come over and he thawed it out (hair dryer) but explained that the insulation in the door had failed and i would need a new door for $800. I did some more googling and found out it's actually a design flaw in the water system and is very common. In fact it's so common GE actually sold a small heating unit that tapes onto the water dispenser to prevent it from freezing! Another solution was to glue a piece of styrofoam insulation on the inside of the water dispenser. That fix lasted for 3 years until the compressor went. Unfortunately when the kitchen was rebuilt the space for the fridge fits ONLY this model of fridge, so I bought another one. But not by choice. I did notice that the new one (which was PRECISELY the same size as the old one) had a redesigned ice maker / water dispenser. It has not frozen though it does jam occasionally.
Perhaps we got the new one. CYE22USHESS. Ours has been great.
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