When I had a MacBook Pro with the 1st generation Magsafe, I went through 2 legit Apple chargers and 3 off brand ones in the 9 years I had the laptop. One of the off brand chargers even exploded! Well, a capacitor inside it exploded, but it was designed well enough that it didn't damage anything else or catch fire.
I've only ever had that one laptop, and I was using it in college so I was constantly plugging and unplugging it, so I have no idea how abnormal that cable use is.
Magsafe is super cool, and it definitely saved my computer from certain death several times, but damn it sucked buying those expensive chargers. It would've been nice just to buy the cable, not the whole damn charger.