That is not really sustainable; that’s for sure. But it’s for sure as well, that those troubles are completely unintended and not part of the business concept.
Those are the troubles, that accompany development phases of new products and concepts almost always. Global players just happen to be able to sort such kinds of trouble out before they can be perceived by the customer.
I guess, we will never know, how many displays are wasted with IPhones or the other brands, as they are sorted out by a more rigid quality control. My guess would be, that in a way even more displays are wasted: If there is just a shimmer of doubt on behalf of display quality the manufacturer is more likely to dispose of a whole batch of displays for IPhones, because Apple is a customer you can’t afford to loose.
In my opinion the troubles with Fairphone modules therefore are just a hint towards how many stuff is wasted in the process of producing electronic devices each and every day.
Buying another brand would just seem more sustainable, as the problem detection happens at an earlier stage. At least to a certain degree.
Some othre problems might be due to the new modular design concept.
Insofar it’s a bit the same. Big brands have the means to spend much more time and money on testing when developing new things. The waste in this case happens before reaching the customer as well.
In all: In my opinion all those troubles might bee seen as another kind of transparency of the whole business.