Wow, same old argument, day after day.
Someone mentioned something earlier, but I'll reiterate. The reason Alpha and Werks get some much attention (Good and bad), is because obviously, those 2 are the best engines you can buy for your money.
I have never ran an Alpha, I know a few who do/have and hear no real complaints. I can however attest to how great the B5 is. I just retired mine after winning a local club series with right at 8 gallons on it. I sold it to Guss2009 on rctech, he got it, and loves it. He told me he already put another gallon through it already. I asked him if he don't mind running it until it quits just to see how many gallons it gets.
I never had any problems with that engine. A couple of flame outs during the series, only due to a huge cold front moving through, and drastic humidity changes affected the tune. Worked the needles a little, problem solved, race won ;D
These threads do get old though, again it's the same old argument with normally the same old people. It's really simple, you run what you like and have success with, and I run what I like and have success with. Why would I try and convince you to change when your engine/buggy/tires/pipe/servos/etc do just fine for you??!!!
Nick, you've been a member here for what 5 years? You should have known that a simple search for this topic could have yielded you 10 pages of threads with this same exact argument. I hope you have good luck with whichever engines you buy. I'm certain that if you choose 1 of the several that has been mentioned in this thread, break it in properly, and keep it tuned and maintained correctly, you should have no problems getting 8+ gallons of life from either one.