Re:LEDs should last forever but apparently don't (Score 2, Informative)

I'm a lighting engineer that helps design LED systems...

Those failures are likely not the LEDs, but are the fault of the controller components. Like any electronic, cheap components become the weak link in the chain, and skimping money on the controller results in shoddy quality in the unit as a *whole*, even if the LEDs are perfectly fine (and I would bet that the LEDs are still perfectly fine.)