Yes, when doing a phone upgrade recently I was considering the LG G4 or Nexus 5X but the bootloop issue put me off the devices completely. There are repair services listed on eBay etc. but their cost getting on for as much as the phone's working value, and if it's a fundamental hardware design fault I suspect any repair done is just a temporary fix that will lead to the phone failing again later on.
For a decent budget Android I would look at the Moto G4, G4 plus or G5. Getting them network unlocked is very cheap (in the UK at least, £2), so buying a used/refurbished network locked one and getting it network unlocked is normally the cheapest way. The Nexus phones have the advantage of getting the software updates quickly and often for longer than other Android phones, so the 5X could otherwise look like a good option.
Unfortunately no phones last forever, a combination of (normally) sealed batteries and the end of software updates. So I just aim to buy at a decent price, keep the phone 1.5 years or so then resell it while it's still working and has some value. I would like to see modular phones with separation between hardware manufacturer and software update provider (as a minimum replaceable batteries), but the obsession with making devices as thin as possible seems to take us away from that.
