My best friend family built a house 15 years ago, when the tech was new-ish, and the pipes are under the cement and inaccessible without huge costs. Then their house settled a little over the years and it lead to maintenance issues.
I suppose new installation don't have the issue, but for stuff I'll use for a long time (basically house, computer and car), if I don't know how to repare it, I prefer old tech.
Wouldn't you need pipes anyway for regular plumbing? That would have lead to issues anyway, right? Also I doubt somewhat the tech was new 15 years ago, it's quite common in germany to use district heating, especially if there's a source nearby you can use or it's a bigger city. So I am pretty sure district heating is very old-tech, just geothermal source is new. German wikipedia says:
> About 9 % of the total heat demand in Germany is covered by heat grids today and 14 % of the demand for residential buildings.
I suppose new installation don't have the issue, but for stuff I'll use for a long time (basically house, computer and car), if I don't know how to repare it, I prefer old tech.