I'm from a small town where our shop was located (Tekamah, Nebraska). Find that on a map... LOL.
Anyway, I know that older people tend to hold on to stuff longer and wouldn't be surprised that there are still older sets used as daily watchers, but I also know that from about the mid 70's on it was rare for a customer to have a roundie repaired. The technology had changed so much they could get a solid state set with a 25" tube and that's what alot of customers did. Unless it was some "older lady" that liked the cabinet on the set, most roundies and other tube sets got tossed to the curb if the repair bill was too high. Tube sets also didn't hold up well in the days of a family having 1 TV. 10-12 years of hard use and most of em were shot. As a kid, I always tried to get my Uncle to save as MANY as possible. I would also sneak and do some repairs using shop parts and not tell him, so they could go on our "used" floor. It makes me sick to think of some of the cool sets that didn't make it. But I do remember the mentality of tossing out the tube sets once the repairs became excessive. (not my mentality tho.....I wish people would still have stuff repaired) Most repair shops aren't even helpful in repairs on older sets. I had a problem with a 70's Chromacolor 2 which is solid-state and the shop tried to talk me out of the repair and acted like I was nuts for even THINKING about a repair. Most shops now do warranty work and that is IT. Most of these "newbie" techs probably have never even worked on tube stuff.