butterfly keyboard defect after 4 years and 1 month

Given that this is a known issue, it's extremely disappointing that Apple only extends the repair program to 4 years. Our Macs last longer than that! I'm now faced with a 500 € bill to fix this, which is of course ridiculous. Apple really should extend this program to all such defective keyboards.

I don't suppose anyone has a good suggestion for how to overcome this?

There are so many Mac owners with this 'butterfly' issue that it's a shame they are not all compiled into 1 thread.