For the most part, I think you are correct.
My original trans was eaten by shavings and chunks coming out of the TC for sure. I could here the normal " shaking can of pea gravel" sound coming from it before I bought it (it was an early lease turn-in.) Knowing what the problem was and relaying that to the dealer resulted in me getting the extended warranty thrown into the deal (AFTER I negotiated the price.) The next trans lost two forward gears. The next one lost ALL forward gears, but reverse worked fine. I backed three miles to the nearest shop.

I still think that the second one failed because pieces from the TC were still in the system somewhere, but I'll never know for sure. It was an AAMCO rebuild.
If I hadn't needed the truck "right now" when the trans failed after the warranty was up, I would have ordered a BTS or Suncoast. That would have been the end of the trans problems for sure. I run a programmer, but after the third trans failed, I drive like I have an egg between my foot and the "roll-coal-now" pedal when the trailer is hooked up.
Interesting that you mentioned the oilfield trucks. The guy that built my last trans works mostly on oil / gasfield trucks.