I don't need to have a catastrophic blowout to know that my 105 r7020 hyd discs are much, much better than my Ultegra r8000 direct mount rim brakes. I was in the "rim brakes are just fine" camp, until I got a bike with hyd discs.
Yes, rim brakes will still stop you, but I wonder if people arguing that hyd discs aren't better, either haven't ridden them, or are not riding speeds/curves/hills where the difference is glaringly apparent. To put it simply, they are confidence inspiring. You can brake later and harder, and still have more control through a curve or descent.
On a recent 50 mile ride that averaged 20mph with about 3k ft of elevation, the difference was really eye opening for me. I'm very interested to re-ride a century I did recently that had about 9k ft of elevation and had me white knuckling a few sections. I'm also now looking forward to a ride I'm doing next weekend, 120 miles w/ 17k ft.
I'm not going to rush to ditch my rim brake bike, but all future purchases will by hyd disc (with the exception of a TT bike, simply for aero purposes and lack of braking while TTing).
Last edited by Rides4Beer; 06-14-19 at 11:42 AM.