The problem comes more from spec'ing bearings that aren't large or robust enough for the task. Look at the service life of a bearing on a Land Cruiser, their recommended cycle is every 40,000km (that's just a re-pack). We're talking about a bearing that's load bearing a couple of tonne worth of vehicle on it as well, and if you're not doing water regular crossings, you can easily extended that cycle.
I know it's in vogue to hate on the Big S, but legitimately, the Stumpjumper FSR I have is still on original suspension bearings; everything is double row bearings and load disperses extremely well. I've repacked them once so far, and they didn't even really need that. Santa Cruz are currently the only company I know of that gives lifetime warranty on bearings in their frames as well.
Don't even get me started on paying as much for a bearing and how "EnduroMAX" are the industry standard; I think it's clever marketing and brilliant positioning, I'm pretty sure most bearings come out of the big five companies (SKF, NSK, Timken, NTN, etc.) and are just re-branded. So you're paying a brand premium for a bog standard product you could just go to any bearing shop and pick up for half the price without the label. I swig Kool-Aid in gulps, and even can't swallow EnduroMAX bearings.