Why we need component and reverse engineering projects

Why we need component and reverse engineering projects

H2Obsession made a great comment on the 8 bit projects post, specifically the RAM expansion REC chip replacement. That comment got me thinking about the need to expand on why this community should focus on such projects.
You see here's the thing. For the average end user that just wants to use and enjoy their Commodore 64/128 without the hassles of some of the original technology's limitations, the best option is to simply buy something like the 1541 Ultimate II. With that you have one device that replaces the slow and bulky floppy drives and their fragile and harder to get media, software expansion cartridges, the maddeningly unreliable tape drive, AND you also get simple, selectable kernel ROM replacement, and RAM Expansion Unit emulation with up to 16GB of storage!. This replaces lots of bulky, unreliable, power hungry hardware with one little black cartridge. Not only that but the original hardware is getting harder to find and more expensive to buy with more scams as people sell broken and untested hardware for increasingly outrageous sums of money.
For end users it just doesn't makes sense to start a new Commodore collection by using all original hardware.

However this does not mean that we should abandon the original hardware. As a community we also need to find ways to keep the original hardware alive and functional. Think of them as working museum pieces. Like steam trains at historical parks. 
There will always be groups of collectors willing and wanting to keep and use original hardware. However, if the means to repair that hardware doesn't exist, then often that irreplaceable hardware will be discarded instead of repaired or even sold for repair. We need to do what other communities do. Reverse engineer parts that are no longer available and create new, 100% compatible replacements. Not only will this allow original vintage systems and accessories to be repaired and returned to service, but it will allow all new products based on those parts to be designed.
Two examples immediately come to mind. 
REU clones and the Commodore 64 Reloaded board.
In both cases, new devices were designed that take advantage of modern technology and manufacturing to create devices that are not just functional equivalents of original parts, but devices that exceed the originals by offering better, more reliable, devices with better performance and/or new features that allow the devices to work better in the modern world. For example, the 64 Reloaded board replaces the now useless RF modulator with an S-Video output and a modern audio out jack. It also uses modern power supply designs to replace the original's unreliable and inefficient design.
The REU clone boards allow the use of more modern, less power hungry RAM chips with user expandable memory configurations.

What both devices have in common is that they rely on original, vintage chips. Chips which are no longer in production and are finite in supply with numbers dwindling every day. 
Without new production replacements, this kind of innovation will stop just as surely as the ability to repair original equipment will stop.

If you feel that it's important that this important part of the history of home computing be kept alive, then we as a community must work together to solve these problems. We do that by working together, sharing knowledge, supplementing each other's skills, and designing and creating new hardware based on open designs that everyone can use. Taken collectively as a community, we have the tools. We have the skills. We have the knowledge. We just need the motivation to actually do it.