In my experience, laundromats do not have a ton of competition outside of a dense urban center. In a region where hundreds of thousands live, and in a town 40000, there are 2 laundromats, both very unkept and with old and gross laundry machines. Business is there to make money and squeeze as much out of every machine. Talking to these people, they rarely replace a machine if its dirty or doesn't do a good job, only if its broken/unfixable. I think your view comes from a very rosy world which rarely is replicated in practice.