Like so many before us, we too had the infamous corroded and cracked drum spider. Talk about a major design flaw; it's amazing how manufacturers are able to get away without more accountability on this problem, instead they just pick off consumers one at a time, with many just junking their machines and replacing them long before what was traditionally thought of as a reasonable service life.
APP's video for replacing the spider in an LG machine was really helpful, as the Samsung only has minor variations on the design. There isn't really anything all that difficult about the repair, it's just a lot of steps as so much of the machine has to be disassembled and reassembled. The whole job probably took about eight hours; even a technician would have probably taken at least 3-4 hours, so it's easy to see why people say it isn't worth fixing. It's a question of whether you're willing to take it on as a challenge and devote the time.
It's important to stay organized. A few things I found that helped: as you remove each part, tape the fastener that went with it to the part, make marks with sharpie on part orientation, etc.
I got away with only replacing the spider and couple of the bolts that hold it to the drum. There was a little scoring on the inside of the front half of the outer tub but not too bad. Had it been necessary to start replacing more parts like the outer tub, bearings, seals, the cost of the parts would have quickly escalated to the point where it wasn't worth repairing. So instead I just cleaned everything up as best I could, and coated the seal and tub mating gasket with some silicone gasket lube.
The other thing I did was paint the new part with rustoleum appliance white epoxy paint ($4 at home depot). I masked off the shaft and the ends of the spider where it meets the tub. It took some doing to get the spray paint down into the deep recesses of the casting. I have no idea if that painting will help or hurt; I just knew that I wanted to at least try something different otherwise I'd be back replacing it again in three more years.