There's another way to look at this subject, too.
S&W has been busy shifting money toward a lot of new projects, which has let their retail/repair inventory of 3rd gen parts diminish. However, it's not like they're having to work on these guns all the time.
One of the problems of trying to get new 3rd gen armorers enough practice after they come back from an armorer class is trying to come up with enough guns for them to work on so their skills and knowledge don't fade. They usually seem to run a long time without requiring the attention of an armorer, gunsmith or factory tech. Ditto not needing a lot of repair parts.
When I was a junior armorer I remember coming back from my first class with a list of all the parts I thought we ought to order, and the head armorer just chuckling and saying we needed to spend our money on other things, like ammo. We had a very meager supply of "repair parts", and we had a few hundred guns in service and reserve.
Then, as time passed, we just didn't have that many guns that required repair. It was infrequent enough that we had to "share" the repair of one of the older guns, with the available armorers gathering around an armorer replacing/fitting a part on the odd gun that actually came across the bench. I know armorers that had to wait a few years before they were able to get a gun on which they could actually replace and fit an extractor or sear release lever.
A couple of us who were concerned about our skills disappearing would pull an occasional training gun to practice full disassembly/reassembly, etc. (Except for rear sights & extractors, as you don't want to be removing & replacing sights and extractor pins unless really required, to avoid needless slide wear and reduce the potential for damage.)
It took quite a few years before our minimal parts supply was reduced to the point we actually had to start ordering some (and then only a few now and again).
I have parts I've bought for my own supply over the years that I know I'll probably never need to use (for either my 3rd gen guns or those of friends, for whom I provide armorer inspection, support and maintenance every now and again).
Maybe the company is just spending their money where they feel it's needed for that last several years, and only replenishing their repair parts supply as needed? I could see them getting out of the retail parts business for 3rd gen guns, especially if they haven't been getting a constant stream of orders for them. They'll probably just place orders to their parts vendors as needed, keeping a minimal investment available for in-house repair (for their lifetime warranty support) ... and maybe some for occasional sales to outside companies who sell their parts.
This thread (and a couple of guns that required new parts which I didn't have) reminds me ... I need to make a Glock parts order. My supply of those parts has run low, and I've been needing more Glock parts for guns. I've been having to either call for warranty replacement parts or buy them from an outside company. I've needed more Glock parts for repair recently than 3rd gen parts.
