I hate the ever long battle of card brands and class ratings, but excellent post Neo. It is cool to have a great mind like yours around again (I vacationed in Evo 3D land for a year).
You summed that up very succinctly, I'm definitely in agreement. Over the years of reading reviews, that the lesser known brands have often been more volatile and over time may have a higher failure rate it seems.
Transcend, Patriot, ADATA, etc. are some of the "off brands" that I think possibly utilize cheaper parts or craftsmanship and sometimes have a higher failure rate. Many people have also reported their SD card underperforming in accordance to the card's write speed class rating - on the other hand others have reported higher transfer speeds than their card's class.
Not to sound like a snob, but personally I would not chance things with anything but Sandisk, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and choice. That does not mean that Sandisk does not fail or are inherently better, because many people have plenty of luck with other brand cards. Its just a situation where sometimes you may get what you pay for. I think there is a reason that alot of fakes and knockoffs are rebranded and repackaged as Sandisk. How does it go, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
More or less like you were saying I seem to remember a tech blog story a little while back that found and proved that the file system of a larger capacity class 10 card took longer to read and write smaller files, and recall them, than a smaller capacity lower classed card. Proving the theory that bigger and faster is not always better. You stated it much clearer though.
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(Just kidding, now there's someone else with a good head on their shoulders) 
