Way back in the early 1970s, the first integrated circuit that I replaced as a maintenance technician was a 741.
It was used in an "in house" designed and built isolation amplifier system.
There I was sitting at my bench with this amplifier, built on a small piece of veroboard, it did not work, what could I do?
All there was, the 741, a few resistors, two potentiometers, maybe a couple of capacitors.
All that I could do was to change this 741, A WHOLE AMPLIFIER !
Up until that point I had prided myself in component level repair, both transistor based equipment and older stuff using valves (vacuum tubes).
I changed the 741, the amplifier worked, and I had a strange empty feeling that somehow my skills were devalued.
Fast forward 40+ years, working with a PIC, you make a bit of a mess of the power supplies, PIC goes pop. No problem, just pop in another one, job done.
And all of a sudden you have just changed the equivalent of a PDP11 !
I guess that is progress.
JimB