It would be good if we had actual data on SSD's that died - how long was it used, did it die because the NAND chips could no longer be written to or some other reason and the usage profile of the user(s) of the SSD. I haven't seen such data (but haven't been actively searching for it).
On one hand, there's the test which a Samsung 850 Pro died after 9.1 petabytes of writes. On the other, as the OP has illustrated, it may not be readily apparent that one is doing so much writing to the SSD. If a user uses a few more cloud services, downloads a lot of videos and/or does video editing work, I can see where they might actually wear out a lower-capacity (thus, lower endurance) SSD (128GB) in a few years if the actual endurance is a bit less than the rated amount.
So, for people who can take what they consider non-intrusive steps to reduce SSD writes, that's probably a good idea. But of course, there will be people who obsess on it to the point where the cure is worse than the disease. (What I do is have downloads go to a HDD and use videos on HDD's as well. I don't use cloud services other than email.)
The big thing for Mac users is that as time goes on, Apple is making it more difficult and expensive to replace SSD's with off-the-shelf replacements. With the MBP's that have used PCIe SSD's, Apple has tended to use SSD's with NAND chips with higher endurance, but will that always be the case? So SSD capacity in terms of not only what you need but how long it will last becomes a factor and unless the cost of a Mac is trivial for one's finances, one should consider easy steps to reduce SSD writes.
