I really appreciate that Tom's is making an effort to include real-world performance info. I don't care how quickly a drive runs a synthetic benchmark. I want to know how a component will effect my system. To that end, overall PC Mark 7 system scores would be even MORE useful to determine what components make sense to spend your cash on, but the home-grown benchie, PC Mark 7, and the big file copy test do help a lot. I am pleased. The 1 TB drive looks like a fantastic option for premium systems, too. I know the vast majority of reads are covered by Seagate's hybrid designs, and that's great, but there is something nice about overkill.
Regarding SSD reliability, all I know if that my workplace has a slew of ThinkPad t410s with 6 years old SSDs and only a precious few have failed. Mine seems as quick as ever - I plow through a crazy amount of spreadsheets and whatnot and it's always kept up as fast as I can hit Save. For what it's worth, I have a Samsung MMCRE28G8MXP-0VBL1 (per system info).