SuperDrive does not accept or read discs. Tried everything. Are they just horrible quality?
Everything you described is a physical issue.


the load/eject mechanism failed somehow to not accept disks.  Your work around was to manually hold them in.
The disks no longer being read could be the laser, the optical sensor or any of the electronic components that support these functions.  It could be a blown capacitor, resistor or fuse.  Maybe a bad IC chip or a broken trace.  Without putting hands on, it’s only a guess at this point.


There is no fix for it other than dissembling it and repairing it.  If this is not feasible the solution you stumbled upon is the correct one: replace it.

You don’t need a SuperDrive to work with your a Mac.  (IMO) They are over complicated with their loading mechanisms and I dreaded getting disks stuck in the drives.  I personally use a plain USB Plextor DVD/CD writer; it’s slow being USB 2, but it’s reliable and gets the job done.