I've had 5 Surface devices and have never had any major issues. The biggest issue I ever had with one was dropping it and shattering its screen. I didn't have coverage on it, but Microsoft replaced it all for about $300.
Good for you. However, consumer reports gave a two-year breakage rate of 25% for Surface products. Given a 75% everything-is-ok rate, that gives you around a reasonable 25% chance (.75^5) that everything is ok with 5 devices, illustrating why anecdotes are not helpful in decision making.
“Surface products“ is not a homogenous category. Some devices have been problematic, while others are very stable devices. It’s not like Microsoft products have poor build quality across the board.
Consumer Reports also didn't use actual return/replacement rates with Surface devices, and included in their breakage rate things that are easily attributable to a Windows Update.
It's still a negative indicator of reliability. I'm sure the breakage rate for other devices also includes software related issues, and I would expect less windows update issues on a Microsoft device than a third party manufacturer device. The difference in hardware reliability might even be greater than it appears accounting for the possible software compatibility advantage.
