what actually determines whether a piece of gear survives long-term in a working studio setup?

there's a lot of coverage around what tools producers recommend at a given moment, but i'm more interested in the retention side of that question, what stays in the chain after the initial enthusiasm fades and the workflow settles into something real. is it mostly about reliability under consistent use, or does deeper integration with a specific creative process play a bigger role? i'm also wondering whether certain tools end up shaping how decisions get made during a session in ways that are harder to articulate than just 'it sounds good' or 'it's stable.' does that kind of influence factor into why something keeps getting mentioned across producer interviews over time, or is retention mostly practical and context-dependent across different production styles?