The Asus Routers are really the best option, just as the Linksys were a long time ago before that. Asus has a recovery mode for firmware failures and/or bricked updates, where as others have a function to attempt recovery, but if the device gets bricked, that process may not work, as they do not build it into the bootloader like ASUS does. Also as was said before, you can never predict when hardware fails, and one out lasting another, does not automatically make it better by any means. I have two ASUS Routers, and have had Netgear and Linksys routers before, and currently a TP-Link Smart Switch. The Linksys got old and even 1 died on me a week after warranty, but the others lasted until I retired them due to age, The Netgear are decent, but one died due my fault with firmware update that went wrong and bricked it. The 2 Asus Routers, an RT-AC3100 Dual-Band and my top end GT-AX11000 still running quite well. The RT-AC3100 is probably now slightly over 3-4yrs old and still runs, connected to my GT-AX11000 in AiMesh mode.
As
@RMerlin said, a lot of the current issues are related to ASUS ironing out bugs in the new 386 firmware, and releasing it slowly to routers in the RTM channel when ready, but the 384 firmware revisions are quite stable and running as expected. Every manufacture is different on hardware/firmware but IMO Asus has done a decent job and has a better failsafe in their hardware. Firmware is fairly decent and for some RT routers, you have the option to use the Merlin WRT firmware, not to mention some of his features/fixes get added to the stock firmware too.