Faulty MacBook Air M2 dead within 6 months. Lost all my work.

There's still no guarantee that if catastrophe strikes, it's going to be one that lets you recover any data off of the drive. A fire could burn down your home. Ransomware could eat up the contents of your drive, and even paying the criminals wouldn't necessarily get you that data back. If a SSD had a catastrophic firmware failure, well, you are not likely to be recovering any data from that drive, even if you pay big bucks to a professional data recovery service. Last, but not least, a removable and unencrypted 2.5" SATA, M.2 SATA, or M.2 PCIe SSD will not be of a lot of use to you if thieves steal your notebook and the drive installed in it.

Wow, you went on to describe such extreme scenarios to justify their unreliability. When a pristine device, sitting on the table top is dead the next morning, just when you're about to start your work, it's called an Unreliable device.

Your device failed. It happens. Some fail quickly, others after years. Most don’t during the usable life. Being pristine is irrelevant. That’s why data backups (generally 3 copies made 2 ways with 1 copy kept offsite) are important.

muguy wrote:

Your device failed. It happens. Some fail quickly, others after years. Most don’t during the usable life. Being pristine is irrelevant. That’s why data backups (generally 3 copies made 2 ways with 1 copy kept offsite) are important.

Pristine is very much relevant, as this is one of the criteria for service centre to decide the cause, and thus apply service charges. External damages may cause internal issues as well.

gopal.virtual wrote:

muguy wrote:

Your device failed. It happens. Some fail quickly, others after years. Most don’t during the usable life. Being pristine is irrelevant. That’s why data backups (generally 3 copies made 2 ways with 1 copy kept offsite) are important.

Pristine is very much relevant, as this is one of the criteria for service centre to decide the cause, and thus apply service charges. External damages may cause internal issues as well.

It is very relevant to who pays for repairs – the manufacturer (if the product is within the warranty period), or the user (if it isn't).

It is irrelevant to the question of whether you are going to get your data back if you failed to make any backups. That is what muguy was talking about. Just as as a flat tire is a flat tire whether the nail that punctured that tire was one that you drove over in the dealer's driveway, right after purchasing the new car; or drove over on some road under construction ten years later.