I think you can back up the seed for the device and restore that seed in a new one if it fails.
according to their bitcoin 2013 presentation the seed should be written down during first time setup, but recovery has to use software as you can't input a custom seed. I'm just not sure if using an oled was the best decision. For example, my sega gamegear still works after 20 years. Afaik the use of an oled puts a limitation on the lifespan of the device which could otherwise just last as long as it has no battery or moving parts.
+1 for gamegear!
"Degrading" means that the color shifts because of different degradion of the individual sub-colors. Not nice for watching movies. No problem for reading letters. It's not like the whole display will be black and unreadable.
I insist on exporting/printing/backupping the individual, plain privkeys though. Who knows if there are new trezor' and compatible software in x years. But as long as Bitcoin exists, I will be able to do something with plain private keys.
Ente