In addition, it is a poor workman that faults his tools.
That is outdated, from the time when workmen made their own tools! A carpenter blaming a chisel he made himself etc.
I did not make the component models. I would never blame a tool I made or designed, that's idiotic.
What would you be willing to pay for certified and verified models?
Nothing. I've been running an industrial electronics design, programming, manufacturing and repair business for ~50 years from when I left school and never
needed a simulator. I often have work queued up for months ahead.
If I were designing integrated circuits or the like where prototyping and one-offs are not practical until a design has been tested exhaustively, it would be a very different matter.
I somehow doubt anyone is producing integrated circuits with a free simulator and models, though. You get what you pay for - they would have support and any component model bugs likely fixed in hours.
I
like building things and working with my hands, whether electronics or any other craft. Most of my hobbies include physical, detail work.
What type of "stuff" is that?
Hardware that must interact with other devices & equipment to function.
Microprocessor based devices that need to run at full speed for any valid results.
Software that needs the above hardware (or industrial control hardware) to function.
Audio / microphone preamps etc., where the quality of the end result is down to the quality (noise levels) of the components used, rather than the circuit itself, which is fairly trivial. Plus the overall design and appeal of the PCB layout and ease of construction for the hobbyists I'm selling to.
General gadgets and test gear; 3D printed parts.
And a lot! of software, both hobby and work.
The last major "bug" I had on a (hobby) project recently was down to bad parts - common small TFT displays.
They either have connections omitted or clone driver ICs that do not operate as the real (and claimed) IC does when reading back data.
The first type gave no output whatsoever; the second type gave garbled output, regardless of SPI speed. Both types worked immaculately for display, with SPI speeds up to 50MHz; but would not read back data accurately even at a fraction of the rated read speed.
I ended up with a parallel interface type instead, which works fine - but all are different sizes and I had to re-work the enclosure bezel design for each different display. The original types had mounting holes where the final one has no provision for panel mounting, it needed an extra clamp frame to attach to a panel.
That clamp frame had to be wider and deeper than needed for displays with fixing holes and in turn needed the case body design adjusting.