I've got some external USB readers/burners that excel for exactly this sort of thing, and just about anything that will run a modern OS will boot from them.
Of course you need Reed Solomon across drives (Eg raidz) regardless of media
Admittedly this was almost 20 years ago at this point so maybe some things have improved since then but my understanding is that consumer media uses a different, ink-based technology to write data to disk, and that ink can degrade pretty quickly. This is in contrast to commercial optical media in which the data is stamped into the disk in a manner more akin to a vinyl record.
Some forms of writeable disc media don't use dyes and can last for over 100 years. Check out the link.
But, to your point, one of the variables that affect longevity is the quality of the manufacturing. If you're buying the least expensive media you can find, then the lifespan is indeed shorter. For my cheapo CD-Rs, I've found that they last 5-10 years. You can also make them last longer by storing them in better conditions (vertically, not laying flat, in an airtight container in the freezer).
I tend to go with cheap media, so my personal habit is to burn new copies of my storage discs every 5 years.
One variable I'm recently able to validate (wow, 20 years later!) is write speed. Discs written (for archival) at slower speeds still work. Discs I wrote as fast as possible on my way out the door have mostly failed by now.
Verbatim DVD-R UltraLife Gold Archival Grade 95355