I used to smoke cobs almost exclusively, I never burned out a cob, but had one or two that I retired, because they looked super ugly; although they still smoked great.
All of the cobs I regularly smoke (which is probably around 10 of the larger bowl cobs) all now have Forever Stems, or the MM equivalent (like the Dagner Poker, and Charles Town Cobbler).
I now have a small collection of Savenilli pipes which distract from my cobs getting all of the love, but I still smoke a cob nearly daily on my way too/ from work.