I'd like to read the article if any one finds it.
Last piece of gear I retired was a jumar. The spring that held the cam broke when I was half-way up Neversink (164 foot pit in AL). My ascender started slipping unless I paid close attention to the orientation. It was pretty scary as I was frogging. After I determined what was wrong I attached a Prussik loop as back-up to complete the climb. The ascender was still functioning (sort of) at the top but I was glad I'd had the back-up loop readily available on my harness as the jumar could easily have come off the rope. I guess that is a case of using a piece of gear until it fails. It is the only gear failure I've ever had.
That said, I haven't purchased a new ascender since 2000 . . . these days I don't do much vertical caving but would be nice to know what the recommendations are for retiring gear. I always store my gear cleaned and dried so hopefully my stuff is OK. I'm sure gear vendors would love to sell me new gear