Pitman arm

How much do you drive the car?

1000 miles a year?
10,000 miles a year?

Depending on how old you are a parts store replacement will last you a life time.

It's an easy part to replace so I would not get too hung up on it

Yeah the only issue is some of the new stuff doesn't have the right tolerances. I've run across ball joints that were so tight they would effect the steering effort and some that were sloppy loose right out of the box. If the replacement is made correctly you're absolutely right, but the quality control is more hit and miss with some of the replacements.