I understand now. I’m not an expert either, but I have some experience with the process. It does get a bit tangled – the part is injection-molded from the physical mold, but that mold was almost certainly machined using CAD files, and those files are made in turn made using a CAD file of the part itself. THAT file, as an accurate representation of what is ultimately molded, could also be used to generate 3D printed or CNC-machined parts. These parts would have a much higher unit cost, but have much lower overhead (since there’s no mold-making costs). I’m guessing it could probably be 3D printed for ~$100 or so? It would at least be an option for people with laptops where the part is broken and no replacement available (eg., the hinge problem).