Fascinating. The magsafe connector is awesome in preventing something snagging the cable from dragging your laptop along with it.
But, as the article says, reliability is a problem. The thing is definitely not toddler-proof. I have a 2012 Macbook Air, and I'm on, I think, my fourth charger.
Had a 2011 Macbook Pro. Was always very nice to the charger, never abusing or dropping it. But Apple's decision with all their cabling to not incorporate strain relief was frustrating. I went through four chargers in four years.
Why does Apple continue to ignore strain relief on their cabling?
Odd. I have a 2011 MBP as well and over four years of constant use in school (plugging in the charger at the dorm, unplugging and throwing it into my bag, plugging it in in class, removing, etc. in various places) it's held up. I use it now with my newer Macbook (just needed to get the magsafe 2 adapter dongle).
It wouldn't have been so bad if you weren't paying for the high-quality engineering inside the charger itself. You get really nice, clean power out of them, but when you go through a charger every year, $80 is a little painful.
Reliability: it's not only about connectors or components, the second picture in the article clearly shows a cat (probably) had a bite on the cable. ;)
I have a bunch of (non-Apple) chargers and cables that lost it to our feline overlords.
But, as the article says, reliability is a problem. The thing is definitely not toddler-proof. I have a 2012 Macbook Air, and I'm on, I think, my fourth charger.