But using your logic, you should ditch the master link because it occasionally fails, but you don't do that..... So you are saying that the potential failure point of an external filter causes you to abandon them, but the potential failure point of a master link doesn't bother you, so you are inconsistent with your application of logic. Didn't you see Jerry's thread the other day where he lost his master link on his BSA outting?.....
If you keep having issues with external filters, where I have not had any issues for over 40 years of using them, it suggests perhaps it's your choice of filter or your method of securing them that accounts for the difference in our experiences. Or,... maybe I'm gonna fry one of these days when my fuel line inevetably fails while
the sky is falling..