The "myth" of the relaibility of the apex seal is predecated in the fact that too many ignorant owners buy these cars and think they can just turn the boost up without any air/fuel modification.
You can make any apex seals last a long time if your support system is in place. You need a stout fuel system, a programmable ECU (no burnt chips),a good electronic boost controller, and you need to be able to monitor Boost, Intake temps, Fuel Pressure, Water temps, an EGT gauge is a good idea, and last but certainly not least you need a good tuner who wont knife-edge your A/F ratios.
3mm seals are the most sturdy, but still can break. Even if they don't break, you still can lose compression. I have pulled apart a 3mm motor that had detonated so badly, the faces of the rotors were actually dented and unsalvageable.
3mm ceramic seals are the closest to indestructable. They are $300 EACH (6 required) and, as all 3mm seals go, also require the rotors to be milled so add another $200. When a ceramic seal breaks, it will basically destroy about everything except your eccentric shaft.
The other options are:
2mm, 3 piece OEM seals. RE Amemiya, the most respected engine builder in Japan, uses these exclusively on his 500HP race engines.
2mm, 2 piece OEM seals. These are a factory manufactured seal that was never originally installed at the factory. The Mazda remans had these for the last 8 years, although the recently went back to 3 peice.
Rotary Aviation 2mm, 2 piece seals. This company manufactures these seals for rotary airplane engines. The "first" batch had some heat related expansion problems (low compression when hot), but have been corrected since 11/03.
I personally installed the Rotary Aviation seals in my engine. These seals were designed to be used in engines that run above 9000 rpms for hours at a time.