The remote for my surround receiver died - and it was a full-on "It's dead Jim!", not even intermittent function. But fortunately, they just used a commercial universal remote. I was able to find one on evilbay and it's identical in both looks and function to the original save the brand name on it.
However, I got fed up with the "Universal" remote thing long ago because none ever really worked to my satisfaction. These days all I'm running is a Roku on my TV, so the fact it can turn the TV on/off and change volume is all the extra control I really need most of the time. So I'm one of those that has the pile of remotes for everything. 😅 I do need the original TV remote for when there are power glitches because the factory setup menu appears and the Roku remote can't handle that. And I have the surround receiver and Bluray player (both rarely ever used these days).