Hi Cognitivefun.
It is just my opinion, but I've been around a lot of locks for a long time.
All locks can be built to be strong and reliable. Reliability is more dependent on the engineering, materials and the QC of the company making the knife.
Not the type of the lock.
Some lock designs are more difficult to manufacture correctly, but.......
In reality, ALL locks will fail under one condition or another. For one it's twist, for another, it's dirt or lint, a 3rd will become faulty with enough wear, on the 4th, a spring fatigues, on a 5th, a pin shears and on some, they are just plain worn out.
I always recommend an occasional light spine wack to "test" the lock. Kinda like checking the oil level or tire pressure. Better to know on the test, then to suffer the inconvenience (or serious damage) of a cut. If it fails, clean it and try again, if it fails again, retire it. Once a lock fails, it is not likely to fix itself.
sal