Ask my buddy who paid double and still failed inspection twice.

Logged hours and running hours are not the same thing, and that's a big part of the story. 5,000 logged hours just means you've spent that much time writing things down, not that the engine has seen 5,000 hours of work. You'd have to add up all the time stamps on your actual maintenance sessions to get a real engine-hour count. That seal pattern you noticed might be based on 2,000 actual running hours, not 5,000, if you're counting bench time and note-taking. Still, the log itself is the key part, because it catches those repeats like the knock showing up in a different rig. Memory is garbage for this stuff, I've watched guys swear a part is fresh only to find out it's got 3,000 hours on it.

My uncle fixed a crooked shower wall with a pile of beer coasters back in 87, worked fine for a decade.

oh man, my buddy mark from down the street had the same thing happen. he was like "passwords are fine, i've been using the same one since 2008" and then his steam account got hit and someone bought a bunch of skins with his card. he was so mad he literally threw his laptop across his couch. now he's got bitwarden too and keeps texting me screenshots of his random passwords like they're trophies. it's funny how one bad day just flips a switch for people.

6 months is just a summer and fall, they probably hoped it'd fix itself first.