Actually, even more than that - here are some examples:[1]
Intel SSDSC2KB019TZ01 ("S4520") with 8.8 PB of lifetime writes
Intel SSDSC2KB019T801 ("S4510") with 7.1 PB of lifetime writes
Seagate ZA1920NM10001 ("Ironwolf[2] 110") with 3.5 PB of lifetime writes [2]
Samsung MZ-76P2T0BW ("860 PRO") with 2.4 PB of lifetime writes
[1] https://www.rsync.net/resources/notes/2021-q3-rsync.net_tech...
SSD wrote endurance is an unavoidable ticking time bomb. But it is nowhere near as unpredictable or imminent as many people assume. It's a failure mode that doesn't sneak up on you, and usually takes real effort to trigger. Other failure mechanisms are much more important.
Granted, been a while, but I do nightly full-disk backups due to the first such experience (so was well prepared for the second).
In general, you should be aware that the "life remaining" indicator may merely be the "warranty remaining" indicator. If the unused reserved block count isn't approaching zero, a drive can usually keep operating long past the official write endurance rating. However, in addition to the above bug, Intel is also known for putting a kill switch in their SSD firmware tied to the "life remaining" counter, so you might have actually experienced the SSD going read-only when that hits zero.
8 Gb should be enough for everyone :)
You can't wear-level against blocks that are in use, only blocks that are free.
If every person I've helped socially and professionally is any indication, people keep their storage anywhere between 80% and 95% full.
At 95% full, all your write cycles are focused on just 5% (plus spare provisioned blocks.)
Think about how browsers consume all available memory and then readily push the system into using a lot of swap. I have to restart my browser regularly because of how much ram it uses even if I've closed every tab.
Think about how whole-system file content indexing is the norm, and all the write operations that occur every time a file is added or updated.
Think about how a lot of applications are just electron apps and they routinely update themselves.
Think about all the filesystem metadata changes.
Etc.
It only takes a bit of arithmetic to prove that this cannot possibly be true, or else all of those 95%-full drives would have long since failed, and QLC SSDs would have been a disaster and never would have been adopted by system OEMs that provide multi-year warranties. (And if it were true, then SSDs prior to TRIM wouldn't have been viable.)
You can include static data in wear leveling, and all SSDs do. It does lead to some write amplification, but that's already factored in to a drive's endurance specs.