Is $3,000 to perform an open system repair on a Bryant heat pump a fair price?

I am a relatively new homeowner trying to make good decisions. Since moving into my house, my HVAC system (heat pump?) has had a number of issues. I understand it to be about 7 years old. The first thing that drew my attention was a groaning sound when the outdoor part of the unit - which I'll call a compressor - kicked on. Nothing really has been done to address that. Later, the interior of the indoor part of the system (air handler?) froze. It's on the second floor of our house so when it melted there was a pretty bad leak in the kitchen. On that occasion I called Michael and Sons. They came out and recharged what was apparently very low refrigerant and cleaned everything. That was about 6 months ago. As of last week, the compressor/condenser/outdoor unit started short cycling. I called Michael and Sons again and they diagnosed a restriction that would require open system repair. An exterior valve was frozen. They took measurements and photos. They suggested an open system repair would cost something like 3-5k and that it might be worth replacing the system entirely. They said that the refrigerant level is currently fine. I'm looking for opinions on whether replacement is something I should be considering. The tech seemed to think that 7 years was getting up there for the system, but I see people on this subreddit with much older systems working fine. I forgive my ignorance and clumsiness with the names of things. The tech was recommending replacing everything (indoor condenser/compressor unit and air handler). I'm wondering if the additional wear I've put on the system is relevant to both components, or if replacing just the outdoor component is a viable/recommendable option. The outdoor unit was operating in heating mode at about 40 degrees when the issue occurred.