I think you misspelled "it's the user's problem". I don't think most companies care until it becomes something that materially affects them. Until then, users are reliant on the developers of the applications they use to make up for the deficiencies in lower layers.
> A reputation for drives that fail faster than their competitors
How can they get that if they stuff enough fake reviews, plus the legion of consumers who would have no idea that the drive was the issue and not "viruses".
True mostly! OEMs are the largest non-enterprise market, and they do (roughly) the same types of testing and validation a enterprise customer would though.
No one is going to be selling a million laptops with a drive from RandoDriveManuGoodBrand off Amazon with no track record and no validation.
Anyone buying the non-name brand types of drives knows they're getting (at best) something that might only work a little while before exploding.
The name brands like Samsung, et. al. work hard to make their firmware not grenade something (and the drives overall to be AT LEAST as reliable as their competitors) BECAUSE they want the name to mean something. It is what drives customers their way, most of the time.
If they get a reputation as a company selling junk (cough Deskstar/Deathstar) that costs them billions over many years.
