If the compressor grounded there was likely moisture and then acid in the system. Most guys aren’t good at cleaning that up. Each new compressor would fail sooner as the problem gets worse. Throwing away more of the skanky piping better, which you did. That’s the safer, easier, bet.
On the coast a new outdoor units condenser coil must be treated or copper. Just a mile or 2 inland untreated coils hold up fine.
Most new units, the fins on the coils are made very thin to look good in energy efficiency tests. But aluminum oxides and then stops corroding. Fins so thin, if not coated with something, they will be gone before they stop corroding. Another problem is dirt and pollen get caught in the complex shapes of the “high efficiency” coil fins and need to be cleaned often to keep them running if there’s a lot of dirt and pollen around.
So yeah on the coast a 30 or 40 year old condenser coil with thick fins holds up indefinitely while a new untreated coil will be gone in 5 years. But a untreated coil should never have shipped to that location. And there is a lot of energy to be save with a new properly speced, installed, and balance system.
That being said if you did the outdoor unit why not do the indoor unit with something matching and high efficiency at the same time?
I should add, 15 years ago doing a compressor for 2k would have been giving it away. 1k? Glad I’m not anywhere near that business anymore. Kind of makes me think the compressor was still under warranty? Unit less than 5 years old? He probably got a free compressor out of deal, to sell to someone else, by warrantying yours.
