Like in physical world, automation components do have life time. Example is mechanical attributes of traditional hard disk drive, they are also subject to wear-and-tear during operating life.
Storage technology now uses solid state without mechanical portion, we must not forget the underlying platform and applications. Apparently they won’t have wear-and-tear operating condition, but the advancement of technology adoption will introduce obsolescence of the platform and applications.
From vendors perspective, they will retire products not longer fit for purposes in the market and therefore drop resources to support.
Hence, even if your automation components are still operating with minimal wear and tear condition, these components will still need to be refreshed for new version, bugs / vulnerabilities fixed, continuous vendor support in order to maintain the business outcome.
Proper life cycle management of the ICT/ICS components cannot be overlooked.