I personally think you're completely out of your mind! That's just my opinion

You can always go back to $100 NIMH packs, those were SOO much better than what we run today...

I've treated every lipo I've owned over the last 4 years like crap, crap compared to how you're technically suppose to treat them anyway. They hit LVC from time to time, I almost never balance charge them, they've sat in freezing temps more than once (not sure they really "froze" though), some have sat for weeks at full charge. All that and I've never had a major issue.

I have a Reedy and a Team Check point pack laying around that show a SLIGHT puff, but they're also 4 yrs old. I can't say I'm surprised.

A year and a half ago I puffed 2 of my HVR 2s packs by leaving them plugged into my starter box. Voltage on both dropped below 2 volts, not per cell but per 2s pack. They were puffed a bit, just enough to split the glue on the case. I brought the voltage up (nimh mode) and then balance charged them. To this day, they are still being used by a buddy of mine every week, and they haven't puffed anymore than they were 1 1/2 yrs ago and they balance like they were new.

I'm pretty happy getting my packs from the guy in my sig

I need to buy the batteries you use then. I've had to toss out 4 since October for one reason or another. From on with one cell randomly way out of balance to 2 others with broken tabs. The fourth one from a short. I've thrown away more Lipos from defects than any kind of other battery in my 38 years on this planet

I've only ever had to dispose of one LiPo in the 5 years or so I've been racing and that was because a crappy Novak ESC went bad and tried to take the battery with it. I've run cracked-case 4S in an 1/8 scale buggy all summer long, various other off road and on road scenarios, and I've never had a battery go bad. I'm going with operator error or you're buying crap batteries.