"Microchip doesn't EOL anything. Well very much of anything."
Those are quite contradictory to each other.
Try to get a pic1650, 1654, 1656, 1663, 1664, 1670, etc. From Microchip would be quite difficult, I assume,
Let's try to clarify.
Microchip tends to not 'EOL' any part that they're actually still selling - as opposed to other vendors who discontinue when they aren't selling 'enough'. There are few exceptions, AFAIK usually related to acquisitions and fab capabilities.
Based on my understanding, if they can still make it in their current FAB, you can still order it. You may have to buy a wafer full of the parts, or meet some other minimum order (i.e. if it uses a non-standard leadframe or similar).
If you look at the EOL list at:
http://www.microchip.com/mymicrochip/Reports.aspx?type=eolYou'll find they almost all fall under the category of:
1) Discontinuation of parts they acquired from someone else and can't make in-house and don't have volume to continue making them.
2) A discontinuation where there is a direct replacement which requires no design changes. For instance, a SPI memory where they're discontinuing the 10Mhz part and only continuing to sell faster parts which are 100% drop in compatible.
3) Discontinuations necessitated by no longer being able to make a given type of part - for instance, some of the rfPIC's were discontinued because the outside fab which were making these for them quit being able to do the RF process that was needed.
I also didn't see a single 'normal' PIC microcontroller on the list as far as I could go back. The only exception was a dsPIC that they said they were going to discontinue, then a couple months later said 'sorry, we changed our minds, and we're going to continue making it'. (I don't count weird things like the dsPIC and the integrated PIC and MEMS accellerometer as 'normal'. I'm talking a normal processor using normal processes).
Compare that with other vendors...