If it helps, I have (in my life) owned 9 apple products, most of which I still use:
Apple //c
512k Macintosh
Powerbook 145
Performa 6200
imac G3 400mHz
G3 b/w 350mHz
ibook G3 700mHz
G4 Sawtooth 400mHz
ibook G4 1gHz
ipod 512mb shuffle
Along with various Apple printers and monitors on the older apple/macs. And I've never heard of the amount of problems you've been having, though I do agree that the reliability of Apple products has declined a bit in the past five years, but then the reliability of ALL products on the planet have. People don't take pride in their work anymore, they simply mass produce for lowest price, as the attitude is "it's cheaper to fix/replace bad ones than to produce ones we KNOW will work". Just a sign of the times mixed with bad luck, I'd wager...