The Backblaze environment is the exact opposite. I do not believe I could dream up worse conditions to study and compare drive reliability. It's hard to believe they plotted this out and convened a meeting to outline a process to buy the cheapest drives imaginable, from all manner of ridiculous sources, install them into varying (and sometimes flawed) chassis, then stack them up and subject them to entirely different workloads and environmental conditions... all with the purpose of determining drive reliability.
The conditions and process described here mirrors the process many organizations go through in an attempt to cut costs by trying to cut through what is perceived as marketing-hype. The cost differences are compelling enough to continually tempt people down a path to considerably reduce costs while believing that they've done enough due-diligence to avoid raising the risk to an unacceptable level.