If our goal is to minimize cost (ignoring the environmental side of things), longevity must be taken into account. If energy savings at the expense of longevity truly makes refrigerators cheaper in the longterm then that's awesome, but I worry planned obsolescence is ruining the appliance market and increasing consumer expense.
I think we're in agreement, however, I don't think an analysis has been made either way to be able to make this claim. The old appliances you see could just be due to survivor bias, while the broken ones were unceremoniously disposed of. Perhaps the old appliances were simpler and cheaper to repair, but perhaps new appliances need less repairs in the first place. Without an actual analysis this is just speculation.
A related example would be laptops and cell phones, which have become more complicated, less upgradable, and harder to repair over time (soldered parts, glue etc.). However, cell phones are now commonly waterproof, which has eliminated a major reason for replacement. Laptops basically have no moving parts other than the keyboard and screen hinge now, and stay useful much longer due to chips being really fast in the last decade.
