Lots of fun stuff here.
I’ve never broken a brake cable in my life. I’m fairly sure the ones I’ve seen rendered inoperable were so the user could continue riding on bent rims.
I’ve never blown a hydro mid ride either. I have grabbed a bike and found the hydro completely empty. This is at least on par to grabbing a bike with a flat tire if you have all the parts. More than likely, this is a time you grab a different bike (3 in your garage is the minimum acceptable number).
I’ve also seen mechanical brakes that had a mysterious sponginess. Sometimes to the point they barely work. Always to the point that the mismatch with the front brake drives me crazy. Depending on the fault, this can be pretty time consuming to track down and eliminate. Sometimes the nuclear option of compressionless cables can cost almost as much as the brake system.
Hydro’s have gotten way easier to bleed over the years. Mineral oil systems seem to be dominating. Hopefully SRAM is paying attention to this too.
The feel for good hydro’s is better than the best cable rim brakes. IMO it’s good enough to learn a few new tricks at the workshop. It’s not so superior that I’d ever stop riding my rim brake bikes. I think this is where most forum users are, loving our disc brakes and still loving our old bikes too. It’s an extremely small segment that truly hates one or the other. They do tend to be rather dominant in these discussions though.
I still think that cable discs are pointless. I do like hydro rim brakes though. A Magura HS11 rim brake is $70 on Amazon right now, providing crushing (hyperbole) power, easy adjustment, and by design can’t be spongy. V-brakes are great but when it came time for me to choose between new and better rim brakes, the hydro was the only thing on my list.