With todays technology it makes it harder to work on things in the feild .
ex.
This year running a boat new to me , i have put 4 hrs on the motor in prefect conditions ,with no problems i felt comfortable to use it duck hunting on the pamlico the first day it got choppy ...really choppy the pounding of the boat stirred up the h20 on the bottom of the tank bypassed the h20 seperator and into the compression tank and fuel rail . We had to get a tow thank god someone was close. this was on a 2003 115 hp mercury......
If this was a older motor i could have drained the bowls on the carbs ,dryed off the plugs ,pumpud the bulb to get cleaner gas and possibly got under way .
Some older outboards had shear pins that would break on a hard grounding . 10 mins later provided you had extra shear pins you were on the way.
Today i know may people that don't carry an extra prop , but when they do spin a hub they wish they did.
So i guess it all depends on what kind of problem you have underway
Although todays motors are more reliable than years past. i think that its harder to fix todays motors than older models in the water or away from the dock.