I would agree with this whole-heartedly. I've been using iPhone since the 3G and went through a couple of the 30-pin cables, but no more than one or two... when Apple switched to the lightning cables (iPhone 5), I've only had one fail... and it was my fault. I closed a drawer on the connector breaking it. I have had every iPhone since the 3G, every lightning connector iPhone, and multiple iPads... currently my wife, myself, our kids and our grandkids regularly use the devices and plug/unplug them... and only ONE failure.
If you take care of the cables (roll them loosely when not in use, plug/unplug them by the connector, etc), they will literally last for years. Of course, if you yank them out of the device by the cord and wind them up tightly, you're going to have problems.