LOL -- I know what you mean. My turn to yell at the clouds.
The core electric component is the same on all these thermistors. It's a rigged game. Heads they win, tails you lose.
Companies everywhere are doing it and making devices you can't get parts for. Right to repair -- it's an important issue that we as consumers are getting hozed on.
Talk to a farmer with a big green tractor, or to a guy with a phone with a broken screen or needs a battery to be replaced. You have to take it to the manufacturer for the smallest of repairs or, worse...buy a new one. "No user serviceable parts inside".
I just took my 2-year-old RAv4 Hybrid to get its oil changed at a quick lube place. The service writer shouts "DON'T PULL IT!!!" to the guy underneath. He had Mobile One 0-w16 oil, but not the filter. He says to me "I've never even seen this number before." Apparently, Toyota has decided to play the game. Semi-proprietary oil filters. I'm sure I can find a substitute but it is a similar situation to your thermistor.
Worse than that is just the planned obsolescence. Injet Printers who huge ink tanks that have components that are engineered to fail to limit the life of the printer. Don't get me started on apple computers and their CPU changes (Motorola to Intel, Intel to M1) between generations of laptops --- new software will not run on the old hardware. My old 'icebook' and 'g4 tower' are bricks only capable of running very old software even though electronically, they are 100% healthy hardware.
Trust me --- I get it. But so few companies today have you, the customer, in their list of concerns....only profit, meanwhile filling our landfills with unrepairable junk
That's why I'd personally cut my losses and take the $5 risk. Worst that happens...I don't get to buy that cup of coffee.