If the sales pitch is that a product can help someone with a massive permanent disability, but there's no sort of long-term vision for after-sales service, that seems borderline scammy. You know going in that the customer will need to keep using it, and also that technical products sometimes break down and need repairs.

Was the customer told that the expected lifetime for thos undoubtedly extremely expensive equipment was only five years when he purchased it?

Also, supporting early models for a long time is a great way to learn about the ways that it fails, and fix those failings in future generations. Although, it seems like companies these days don't seem to care at all about the longevity of their products, and that is the real problem.

Except plenty of cutting edge prototypes were made in the past when companies did provide parts

Skunkworks airforce projects of old did provide long term support to their customer, even when a lot of their initial prototypes remained just that.