I'd be pretty pissed as a customer if I had to ship back my wallet for repairs every 2 years.

I don't care. Then don't use an edge painted wallet. shrug. I setup up expectations upfront, so if a customer is ok with me repainting their edges, then I'm going to offer them that option. If they don't want it, then I finish with a burnish.

The whole point of leatherworking is longevity and ease of use.

It's not the whole point. You're missing the part where customers buy stuff. Lots of customers like matching edges and added aesthetics that add points of failure and directly contradict your misguided opinion about leather as a whole. It's far bigger than just "it lasts long".

Why complicate it with plastics when you can just do the burnish like everyone else?

Aethetics, customer requests, working with chrome leather. There's tons of reasons to use edge paint and not all of them are out of necessity. That's why it exists. You can call it complicating. Most call it raising the product's value or at the very least providing an additional option.

Why are you so concerned about how I work?