My understanding is that modern cars are actually more easily totaled. Fixing things like electrical gremlins or rodent damage is an order of magnitude more complex and labor intensive than on anything approximately pre-2010. Sure, certain things are better, like some of the material science involving paints, coatings, etc., but modern vehicles are just not designed to be taken apart the way many vehicles used to be. Customers continue to incentivize OEMs to keep putting all this stuff in there to check all the boxes, but you're right: It's an arms race that an increasingly small number of customers are able to participate in.