My 10 year old Trek came with 24 spoke rear wheels in a paired pattern. Been riding those wheels ever since and never once broke a spoke. I will admit that as a mid Clyde (260lbs/120 kg range at my peak) I am pretty careful checking, truing, and balancing spoke tension because of reading threads like these. I have always been prepared to swap those out for the big old Vuelta's but now I am more believer in making sure tension is balanced and in the sweet spot of the tension charts.
YMMV