Just because you see it in a magazine doesnt mean those cars are all out on the streets, a lot of them are trailer sailors or spend their time in the garage and even then the ones that go out and do get defected have to do exactly what you said, eg turn it back to stock(ish) and keep going back until it passes.
There really are some horror stories floating around out there about defects, how much of them are fact vs fiction though is anyone's guess