Did you know that that’s actually two different series of mowers even if the model names are the same?
No joke, the John Deere mowers produced for the big box stores are produced with a lower QC, and lower quality threshold to allow them to be made cheaper.
The John Deere dealer direct mowers are made in a different facility, from a different vendor of parts and have a higher QC threshold.
I did the service catalog writing back in 2016 for the D and L series mowers.