I don't have any kinetic esc, but I do run novak ballistic motors. To me, the motors are the best out there, the new esc's, to put it mildly are not. Novak tried to out tekin tekin with boost, timing, etc. The result is bad to say the least. The old novak gtb's run fine.

In terms of what is causing the problems, I think novak issues are similar to lrp issues in offroad cars. Most failures that I have seen come from shock and shorting inside the esc. The older lrp esc's were larger and used a single large circuit board. The newer esc's are smaller and use multiple circuit boards sandwiched together. If the shock is great enough (hard landing, etc,) the boards can touch and short against each other = toasty esc. Another issue is insulating the esc from shock. Most racers use 1 layer of servo tape, or even worse, shoogoo the esc to the chassis. This doesn't limit shock to the esc. I have always used 2 layers of servo tape under the esc and it seems to help.

In my opinion, you can buy whatever you want for onroad because the shock isn't there. For off-road racing, run the older lrp's (sphere, spx, etc,) or the tekin rs/pro. Simple as that.