There’s no doubt part of the success is the chemistry of the product, but the required independent testing to very high standards also likely plays a large part in the quality of the final products.
Edit: I checked and bought these shoes in April 2020. I guess I will try to contact them?!
The product was "Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 36 Trail GTX Gore Tex". I wonder where I should contact them?
I have used Gore-Tex only in shoes, but in various kinds of high-quality shoes (i.e. not cheap), either made by a less known Swiss company, or by brands like Adidas or Asics.
In all cases, I have used daily the shoes for 3 to 4 years until I had to dump them, always due to an excessively worn sole, not because of problems with Gore-Tex.
On the other hand, I think I went through by now about 3-4 pairs of various running/hiking lighter plastic shoes (Merrell, Reichle, Salomon) and in those the membrane is the only thing keeping the water out. Unfortunately, it's generally sewn deep into some plastic mesh, so no way to tell / maintain it even if You'd like to. And one tear in the membrane means that all the water that seeps into the surrounding mesh "will" always find the way into the failed part of the membrane. Unfortunately, the rest of the membrane then tends to still do its part in slowing the moisture on its way out. So it drains / dries much slower than shoes with no membrane.
This is the main advantage to it imho. I hike all day in Northern CA for work, so good rain gear is needed. There are plenty of options without GORE-TEX that are satisfactorily rain proof, but the ones with GORE-TEX are almost always better quality and have a better warranty. The REI Rainer is a good example of something that is generally good enough at keeping water out, but its relatively poorly made compared to their XeroDry jacket that includes GORE-TEX. It just leads to the end product being higher quality.
If your selling point is waterproofness, and waterproofness can be destroyed by bad assembly... assembly is directly linked to your perceived product value.