I've heard this story from more than one steam CMO, and it is one reason why some operations will spend more money fixing an old boiler than it might cost to manufacture a completely new one. The boiler steels that are available today just don't have the same consistent quality that they had back in the day. Manufacturing controls on the composition of the steel are not as tight as they need to be to produce steel that will last. Even the flue tubes these days can be garbage. I know of at least two operations near me that have had to re-tube their boilers long before their locomotives were even due for their 1,472 SDIs.
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