I was at the Wally World in Kingston, New York the other day picking up some things for the car, and I noticed that they had an
iFixandRepair store. They're one of several national chains that mainly fix mobile phones; so they at least have electronics tools and technicians who know how to use them.
I've never used their services (nor any other electronics-repair service) because I do those sort of things myself. In fact, I owned a computer-repair company in the Greater New York City area until about ten years ago. I sold it and moved to the country when the old lady and I split up. I wanted to be gone before she changed her mind. She hated the country, and I hated the city: So I skedaddled while the skedaddling was good.
But I digress.
The point is that these chains exist throughout the United States (and presumably other countries), and I really can't think of a good reason why they couldn't be authorized to do retrofits of V1 drones and/or controllers to V2. I keep looking at the teardown pictures, and it looks like it would be a yawner for even an entry-level electronics technician. Certainly someone who fixes cell phones for a living could do it.
Most of the distributors probably have technicians who are capable of doing the retrofits, as well. Which brings me back to that moribund equine: Why not do retrofits rather than replacements?
We've become a society that doesn't like fixing stuff, which is a shame. But that's a phenomenon, not something that came down from Sinai. The option does exist and, in this case, seems to me to be the easiest and best one for all concerned.