[Formulajones]

Whether people realize it or not there really isn't a huge demand for flat tappets these days anyway unless you race in some form of a restricted class.
Rollers have been in use since the 60's in race applications and oems adopted it across the board in the 80's and that trickled into the car hobbyist shortly after. Hell there is hardly even a crate engine offered today that doesn't have a roller whether it's from the oem's or your favorite crate engine builder. Literally millions on the roads for decades so it just makes sense. Failure is such a small percentage, worrying about it is silly. Take the tiny sample size from this site. Probably the largest Pontiac community on the internet yet it might make up what.....less than 1 percent of the car hobby in general? You have to put things in perspective, not to mention some failures posted on this site were completely self inflicted and not the fault of a roller at all. Everyone wants to make a mountain out of a mole hill. The biggest reason people don't want a roller is simply the cost. It's an investment, especially these days.
After my son bought Johnson lifters for $1140 they raised their price to $1600. And I think that's where other people take a turn for the worst. Trying to find the cheapest deal out there doesn't usually pay dividends. You end up with reboxed crap that fails. You see it all the time with roller rockers on this site. No one wants to spend $800 for crower so they put cheap scorpions on then are pissed when they find pieces of rocker in the engine. Roller lifters are no different in the regard.