In a way, you're lucky because of timing.
There was a gap of several months where 2011 MBP owners' AppleCare had expired before the Repair Order was issued - and people like me whose machines had failed were faced with a hard choice - pay >$500 for a fix or buy a new laptop.
Prior to the repair order, the logic board replacements had the same GPU defect. I had my logic board replaced once already under AppleCare, and it got GPU glitches within 3 months of the repair. There was no point in replacing it again and again only to get the same problem over again.
The GPU problem is genuinely fixed with the post-Repair Order boards though.
I imagine the situation was even worse for people who did not buy AppleCare.