Why a depreciation schedule is not a value
One number, two directions, and both sides subtract clean.
A fixed-asset register answers a tax question. Placed in service, recovery class, accumulated depreciation. It answers that question correctly, and it was never built to answer any other.
Depreciation is a schedule, not an observation. It does not know that a particular ultrasound platform held its value because the probes are still supported, or that a particular analyzer collapsed because the manufacturer closed the consumable.
So the register drifts in both directions at once, on the same page. The same $720,000 book value can sit $280,000 below what the equipment would cost to replace, and $290,000 above what it would actually sell for.
One blended total averages the high lines against the low ones. It looks about right, and it is wrong on every line inside it.
That is why a single figure carried forward from accounting cannot serve a carrier, a county, a buyer and a lender at the same time. They are not asking the same question.