I've had button issues on the iPhone 6 and 5, they either get loose or start crunching. It may not be wide spread but taking the button out fixes that + better for water resistance.Because there has been wide spread home button failure (outside of tourch ID issues)?
Did apple say they test the button my pushing it a million or two times in their lab.
The only reason they added the solid state button is because the silly asians had propagated the myth that the button was super fragile.
This rumor is brought to you by the same people that think fan death is a legitimate problem.