I don’t know why the owner parked it over an easy fix,
Depending on the skills of the owner, the skills of the neighbors/mechanics nearby, etc, what is an easy fix to us right now might have been a totally different situation back then.
As an example, the childhood car that started my insanity:
Grandpa bought a new 66 Fury II 4-door sedan, silver with blue int, fenderskirts, with 383-4 and 3.23 suregrip, and immediately gave it to my Dad. As grandpa usually had 6-cyl Darts and Valiants, I assume he bought it as a gift to my Dad for some reason.
It was the family car until early 80s when it had a brake issue of some sort, and Mom deemed it should be 'parked'. So it went to Grandpa's side-yard back by the treeline next to an ancient shed. What sort of brake failure could it have had, that one of us couldn't have fixed over the span of a long weekend??? I don't really know my Dad's skill level back then, but I know that I greatly surpassed him (as children are supposed to do). I also know my Dad's heart is huge, and I have not yet caught up to him there (which brings the next chapter).
So the car sat for 2-3 years. A needs-help buddy needed a car, so Dad fixed the brakes, got it running again, and away it went to its new home. I had dreams that car would be mine one day (I was 13 or so) but it was not meant to be, somebody needed it more than I did, and I was sad to see it go (even though it had typical wear of a 15-year-old mid-60s car). Dad told the buddy to put premium fuel in it. Which he did not, because it was too expensive to put good gas in a free car. So within some time, we get word that the car isn't running right, it's backfiring and running poorly. Dad laments that he's using cheap gas in it, the buddy no longer wants the car, and Mom asks why we need a car that won't run right. Dad has the chance to get the car back but chooses to let it go. And that's that.
Looking back, with my experienced eyes - the car probably was ready for a set of points and only needed a good tuneup. Within a short weekend it likely would've been running like a champ.
Sometimes we're the saviors of these cars, sometimes the downfall. History (small-scale) decides.