It looks like you can still buy Römertopf stuff online, so I suspect they’re still in business. At the end of the day they’re ceramic, they will be broken so there will always be some demand for them.

But your point stands. There is a serious danger for a company to make a product that lasts forever so that they’ll never get repeat business.

I think a company could theoretically get around this problem by growing slowly (or not at all). That way, they can keep making some money to keep the tooling and the knowledge around go keep manufacturing going at a low level. They can produce replacement parts and replacement products and still keep the business afloat. Nothing is indestructible. There’s still a bustling cast iron skillet market, after all.

Of course, the problem with that is infinite growth is what fat cats want, not slow sustainable growth.

But what do I know? I’m a moron on the internet.