I believe its a bit more complicated. AFR is basically an estimate of the chance that you will receive a dud from the factory. It doesn't mean that a component with a low AFR will on average have a much longer life expectation then a component with high AFR - rather, it simply means that its less likely to fail within one or two years from manufacturing.
Besides, comparing a Toughbook and a MBP is like comparing a tank and a general purpose commuter. Most of the original criticisms (high price for the components, limited storage options) apply to the Toughbook even more then to the rMBP. The Toughbook is tough, but its also insanely expensive (twice the price of the rMBP), extremely heavy (more then two times compared to the rMBP) and SLOW. It performs on the level of the MBA, while being 4 times as heavy, having half the battery life and over two times more expensive for the comparable configuration. I don't think that the slightly increased reliability is worth almost $2000 extra for the majority of users![]()
Which models are you talking about?
The ones that can easily take a 6 feet fall are quite heavy but the semi rugged or business rugged ones can be a lot lighter.
Look at this one for example
An amazing 33% thinner than the previous model, but still with a class-leading 14.5 hours of standard battery life — and only 3.1 lbs. The Panasonic Toughbook® SX2 is made with tough magnesium alloy, has a shock-mounted hard drive, 12.1" HD+ display, webcam, DVD player, supports both USB 3.0 and 2.0, analog (VGA) and digital (HDMI) video, the latest SD card standard (SDXC), and a easy to use circular scrolling touchpad.
BTW Panasonic laptops have a lot of user removable parts and come standard with a 3 year warranty.
Since Panasonic doesn't solder as many things as Apple does to the board , that gives the end user more flexibility when it comes to repairs and upgrades.
You could replace the hard drive that it comes with with an enterprise grade SSD if you wanted.