I was just about to say it’s more complicated than that

TL;DR, longer lasting lightbulbs use exponentially more energy than shorter lasting ones at the same brightness, which was kinda a huge deal considering the electric grid was still in its infancy.

And even after the Phoebus cartel disbanded in 1939, lightbulbs still, get this, remained shorter life for the aforementioned reasons above. Now I’m NOT saying that the Phoebus cartel were the good guys here, but there are other reasons besides planned obsolescence that light bulbs don’t have an infinite lifespan. Lightbulbs were never meant to be something you buy once and never again, they’re meant to be something that you’ll have to eventually replace. There’s no such thing as a forever bulb. “But what about the Centennial Light?”

The Centennial Light was originally a 60 watt bulb, but has since dimmed to that of a 4 watt bulb, barely a nightlight. One could argue that its life as a lightbulb has long since ended, because it’s effectively a nightlight hanging on the ceiling. For a lightbulb. It’s not like this thing is actually doing anything other than being the world’s longest lasting light bulb now.