I started backing up using Time Machine when I got my first Mac in 2006. Migrated my sparsebundle from my first Time Capsule to another when I needed a bigger one, then migrated that to a number of other drives drives over the years (which thankfully never failed, but I replaced them every 4 years). Have successfully restored from a backup onto at least ten different laptops (I was upgrading every year for a while). I have literally only ever had “one” Time Machine backup in the entire time that I have had a Mac. Honestly, I’m blown away it still works.
I maintain other backups too, I’m not crazy to think that this is rock solid, but at this point I’m keeping it going just to see how long it will last.
Up to a few years ago I was constantly hosing my TM drive and starting fresh.
TM has supported multiple destinations for a good long while, so in the past I was always running two TM destinations.
BTW, side note, with SSD prices crashing, I should be able to get rid of the spinning-rust and the luxury of silent local SSD TimeMachines running!
When Time Machine goes stupid, just wipe it and start over. Any efforts to try and recover or repair are just folly. Just watch your life tick away for days and days only to inevitably fail.
It doesn’t happen often, but does happen every couple years. Many times it’s an indicator the drive is bad.
That said, I’ve never had a problem recovering from TM. Whether it’s a single file, directory, or a complete reinstall.
I have TM for my main drive, and use BackBlaze for everything (including my main and media drives).
Lately, for the last few years, I haven't had that problem.
Before TrueNAS I was using an M1 Mac Mini with a USB3 JBOD as TM destinations.