I don’t understand what you guys are doing to destroy them. The Smoothie has the same kind of bearings as any other headset with sealed ACB cartridge bearings. Look pretty standard to me. Mine’s lasted a year so far with zero problems.
And if you jet wash any bearing areas, then you get what you deserve. Learnt that early on with “better” branded stuff already mentioned (FSA). Jet wash, grease gone, grind grind.
Haven’t had a huge range of headsets, mainly some FSA stuff, later an FSA Orbit Extreme Pro, and got a Hope on my current big bike plus the Smoothie on the 456. All, aside from the original one I destroyed, are perfectly fine. Frankly I can never tell the difference. The Smoothie is just a chunk of metal to press in the frame and some standard cartridge bearings like any other so I don’t get what people have problems with.