How many seasons do you get out of a pair of waders?

[Joe]

Depends a lot on where you fish. If you ride the beaches and fish sand and don't walk very far in them, you're going to have a different experience than if you fish Block and the RI Breachways like Tattoo Bob.
Waders are priced high because they factor in the replacement pairs. It probably only costs $30 to manufacture a pair of light breathable waders - but the bean counters factor in the replacements so you're really buying three pairs for the price of one.
Cabelas charges less, but they may have a undeclared policy of "we'll replace "X" amount of pairs, after that you get Aquaseal." That may be why they cost less - but I don't know.
Once you say "lifetime warranty" you now get people who poke holes in perfectly good waders at the end of each season in order to start each new season with a new pair. I've known several people to do this - this is probably why we see the companies offering declining warranties.
From a merchant's perspective, helping people out with wader replacement can kill the bottom line if the wader company balks on providing a replacement. The customer is happy, but now you need to sell four pairs without a return to get back to zero.