No one is forcing me personally to use them–but I’m sure designers at major tool brands are being told they need to overmold because their competitors are doing it. And there is a quality increase. Shock absorption, for example.
All good points. If/when we get to that dystopian future, I just want to be able to say I did the best I could, you know what I mean? E-waste is a whole other can of worms. I don’t even know where to start with that. Frankly, it’s probably a much bigger issue than overmolding, given the types of chemicals you find in e-waste.