alt Hacker NewsWell, if it's not an advertised spec on the datasheet, and constrained in the direction you're using it, then all guarantees are off and it's on you to qualify the parts on a batch-by-batch basis.
I think that counts as "cursed" from a design-for-manufacturing perspective.
"After a production run of 12,000 units the TR-808 was no more." https://secretlifeofsynthesizers.com/the-strange-heart-of-th...
Behringer sells a clone of the TR-808 called RD-8. They must have solved that problem somehow. They went as far as cloning some vintage Roland silicon that cannot be sourced, so the transistor issue seems minor by comparison.