I don't buy this at all. My iPhone 4 simply will not bend no matter how I flex it. My Brothers Note 2 does not bend, though I can apply some force and get a little bend out of it, it bends nothing like the iPhone 6 Plus. So while this article is free to "Duh" me all it wants. Simply put, standard wear and tear should not ruin/bend/crack the phone. Apple knows that people put these things in their pockets. I don't agree with putting phones in the back pocket, hell that's just asking for trouble (sitting on your $300 subsidized phone? lolwut), but this reportedly happens in the front pocket as well.
There are some great videos of iPhone 6 pluses being bent with little force (comparably to note3 phones).
Also I can't even fathom folding an iPad into the debate. I don't know anyone who puts theirs in their pocket. Maybe if I actually stepped on it (which happens as my daughter likes to leave the iPad laying about wherever she finished using it last, sometimes in her blanket forts).