So months and months ago I noticed the little gasket around the stuff that goes from the water heater controller through the door to the burner was loose. Being the intrepid homeowner that I am, I put it back in place.
A few months pass and the pilot light starts going out. Re light. Later in the week it goes again. Eventually gets to where I'm lighting thing whenever we need hot water - at least once a day. Call plumber because I'm not comfortable really working on gas appliances. They replace some part that was cracked, say "maybe the insulation is clogging up the airflow. So I pull out some insulation (was falling out of the wall anyway - I just finished the job). For like a week the water heater worked. Then we're back to pilot light out every morning at least.
So I eventually watched a video on Youtube about water heaters and lint clogging the air inlet. Turns out, the air inlet is on the bottom of the tank - very difficult to access, and over time it clogs up with dirt and lint and such. What did this guy do to fix it? Disconnected that gasket I had put back in place several months before . . .
Moral of this story - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Been 3 weeks with a fully functional water heater since I undid the un-needed repair I started this all with.
More seriously - is it safe to leave it in this condition? Water heater is old enough that next repair should be "replace it" probably.