'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'
Seems to be an awful lot of that going on in this thread; forgetting to do things occasionally is normal and everybody does it.

That said, I'm not sure I'd like to see repair npc introduced into every dungeon. Not because it will make people completely lazy, dependent and irresponsible (thereby leading to the collapse of Western civilisation as we know it, I assume) but simply because it seems like overkill and would be taking development time away from something else.

How about a Repair Kit? An item that can both be purchased from an npc or crafted (keep it simple: works on any level or type of equipment so inventories are not swamped)
and,
give crafters back the ability to repair other people's gear (the necessary phrases are still in the 'auto-translate' dictionary).

It inconveniences everybody when someone's equipment breaks. It seems silly to me to insist that is exactly how things ought to be and that the other members of the group should just take their punishment along with the person who forgot; I really can't see who that benefits.