IMO it hasn't been failing them, it's kept their nose just above the waterline. Reality is SKR (and JP/TW etc) are developed countries with high tertiary enrollment that have nearly maximized their demographic potential in the sense that they can't really produce more skilled talent to fill what is being lost without immigration. Which would be hard since they can't compete with Anglo countries for same talent pool. So folks in globally competitive industries (like Samsung) are pressured to work 200% harder to squeeze 10% competitive advantage to prevent their shit from getting kicked in. US sanctioning PRC, whose minting OECD combined in talent and starting to compete in tech/hardware brough SKR/JP/TW some time (remember when Huawei was about to stomp Samsung), but the tides are against them.
PRC got similar problem, but it's more they're producing too much talent than opportunties so involution happens. With like 50m more STEM + skilled labour on the way to add the the competition. But one saving grace is PRC has like 150 cities with over a million people that folks can fuck off too and still have decent quality of life. You can always lay flat and chill in a tier2/3 city nearly as vibrant as Seoul/Tokyo/Tapei with less cost of living. SKR/TW and somewhat JP is kind of fucked in that sense, most of the opportunities are in a few geopgraphic grinders where you have to be.
