My heat stamper died mid-press, and honestly I'm glad it did

Had my little hobby press running a batch of 7-inchers for a local band, maybe 14 records in, when the heating element on my stamper just gave out on a Saturday. The last two sides came out with this weird surface noise, like a faint sandpaper hiss, and I was ready to toss the whole rig in the trash. But I pulled it apart, found a loose thermocouple wire that was probably original to the unit I got used back in 2019, and re-crimped it. That fixed the heat inconsistency, and the next 20 records sounded cleaner than anything I'd pressed before. It made me stop trusting the 'set it and forget it' mindset with pre-made plates, I check the actual dwell temperature every run now with a cheap IR gun. Has anyone else had a random failure that turned into their best output yet, or am I just weirdly lucky?