The connector is durable but the cable leading up to it isn't. I can of course only speak anecdotally, but I've gone through 4 lightning cables in a year and a half, the kicker being that they're not by any measure cheap (AUD$25). My first one took less than a week to become unusable.
The cable itself is a whole nother story(and actually shared between the 30 pin.). Your post implies the connector sucks, when infact its probably one of the best connectors I have ever seen IMO.
