Will erasing an SSD with Disk Utility harm it?

SSDs should not be "mass erased". That can clog the write/delete queue and can disable the SSD (no joke ... can make it unresponsive). When SSDs "delete" a file the tracking of how the data on the once-used blocks is allocated is removed. Simply deleting files is sufficient to make the previous SSD contents unreadable except by extreme measures.

hngkaho wrote:

I've heard that SSDs have a finite time for read/writes

True enough. No need to erase.

If you already did, and your backup and running, don't fret over it.

I would recommend TRIM, if it is not enabled by default on your 2015.

The advantage of the TRIM command is that it enables the SSD’s Garbage Collection to skip the invalid data rather than moving it, thus saving time not rewriting the invalid data. This results in a reduction of the number of erase cycles on the flash memory and enables higher performance during writes. The SSD doesn’t need to immediately delete or garbage collect these locations it just marks them as no longer valid.

ref: http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz/garbage-collection-and-trim-i n-ssds-explained-an-ssd-primer/

The new command line utility doesn’t have a

--status

system_profiler SPSerialATADataType | grep 'TRIM'

If you use Disk Utility to erase the SSD all that will be erased is the file directory and that’s all that needs to be erased. If you use a different disk utility you might have the option to perform a “security” erase or to “zero out” the data. Those are the mass erases that you don’t want to perform on an SSD.

Will erasing the SSD possibly harm my disk?

I've heard that SSDs have a finite time for read/writes, but will a normal erase with the Mac Disk Utility cause obvious damage to the SSD?

No. Erasing your SSD will not harm it.

No. A normal erase with Disk Utility will not cause obvious damage to an SSD.

I've erased my SSDs (Macbook Pro Retina flash storage and Mac Mini Crucial SSD) multiple times using Disk Utility to reinstall OS X and they still perform perfectly.

El Capitan Disk Utility is designed with SSDs in mind.

hngkaho wrote:

So is it correct to say that using the built in disk utility (which doesn't give the 'security erase' option) won't cause a significant harm to the SSD?

Yes, you are correct.

Any sort of 'security erase' is not good for SSDs. Simply erasing/reformatting an SSD does not cause harm to an SSD.