I believe lots of things are real, and there are lots of real things that almost never happen...
Of all of the iPhone 5's I've seen in real life outside of the Apple store (and it seems like every other person has one now lol...) I haven't seen or heard of ONE with a single problem. But, oddly enough, when I peruse the forums (where there is no way to validate anything) it seems problems run rampant.
I wonder why that is???
Again, I DO believe that scuffs, bends, damage out of the box, etc... HAPPEN. It's just that they are extremely rare, and not anywhere near in number what the Internet would have you believe.
I've gone naked since day one, and the phone looks as close to perfect as a mass produced consumer electronic can.
Now in fariness I don't sit on my phone (bends) or take crappy care of it (scuffs). I'm sure if you did you could damage/bend it if you wanted to...