Solder technique: Over or Under?

[CatalinaWOW]

It is hard to imagine where that level of effort is a better choice than doing a new board.  Until you realize they aren't working on their own product.

Not only that, but possibly on a product that hasn't been made in years.

Take a look at this company, whose specialty is to continue manufacturing obsolete semiconductors for the military (by buying the tooling, specs, processes, intellectual property, etc — and the contracts — from the company that's abandoning the product): http://www.lansdale.com

This is their slogan: 

I get all that, but with today's design tools in quite a few cases it would be easier, faster and result in a better repair to reverse engineer the PWB, have a new PWB fabbed and then re-install the old components.  Or new old stock, or whatever. 

Unless.....