what separates the tools producers actually keep from the ones they drop after a few sessions?

curious about the reasoning behind long-term gear retention in working production environments, not just what gets recommended once, but what stays in the chain after the novelty wears off. is it workflow integration, reliability under pressure, or something harder to quantify like how a piece of equipment shapes decision-making during a session? would be interested to hear whether there are patterns across different production styles or if it's mostly context-dependent.