From experts? Oh darn. Well, uh, hmm, I'm opinionated. Is that good enough? Humor me anyways.
I don't know where #1 came from, but I'm positive it wasn't from me. Of course, I do have a nicely-made AFCK, so it's not that linerlocks can't work. It's just that #2 does apply to #1. #3 is true too, but generally no better or worse off than a linerlock, depending on what you use for comparison.
What many people do is to tailor their fighting style to circumvent the nasty problem of potential lock failures (such as focusing on slashing exclusively). However, the very near future looks pretty good that we may not have to worry about that at all. Reports from those who have handled new locking mechanisms such as the Axis lock and the Rolling lock seems very promising. Naturally, no lock is completely fail-safe. But some are better than others.
I would like to entertain a notion of mine. I've come to the conclusion that lock failures are notorious because of two factors: They are push-activated mechanisms, and they are located on the handle where the hand has to grip on.
The former is pretty straightforward. Stress. White knuckle. Disengage. On the other hand, if the mechanism was such that one had to pull in order to disengage, white knuckling would not be a problem what so ever. A while back, I proposed just such a mechanism, only to find out later that a company called Entrek has already done something nearly identical called T-lock. In fact, with a mechanism like that, white knuckling it would actually reinforce the lock, not weaken it! Of course, I think they stole the idea from me, but we'd have to file that under the "conspiracy theory" drawer.
The latter is just as straightforward. Imagine if someone came out with an over-sized Buck 110, for example. No white-knuckle problems because, theoretically, the lock release would be located outside the user's grip. Problem solved. Of course, the handle shape would need major re-work, but that's another story all together. I can easily see Cold Steel using this mechanism for their folders, since most of their folders are pretty big to begin with. Add a lower guard to make a j-shaped handle, and they would have a truely worthwhile fighting folder. Hey, Lynn, are you reading this?!?!
But when it's all said and done, yes, the boot knife does look better all the time!
