He also couldn't explain why the pinnie had shorted out and cut the power in my home. His explanation was that maybe my house was struck by lightning. I found this bizarre given his experience.

Sounds like a load of BS to me.
According to this guy there would be thousands of dud machines around.
Saying it is a dud means he just doesn't know what it is and can't be bothered.
Anything can be fixed if the person trying to fix it is stubborn enough.

I would suggest anyone who owns pinballs is stubborn, you need to be sometimes - I know I am.