In my experience the higher-spec DSubs are actually more prone to broken pins. The connector is actually meant as cable harness connector for aerospace-ish appl

In my experience the higher-spec DSubs are actually more prone to broken pins. The connector is actually meant as cable harness connector for aerospace-ish applications, the whole concept of dsub shells and using it for external cables is largely an IT industry invention that happened few decades after introduction of the connector itself. Micro ribbon (ie. “Centronics”, “Telco connector” and what not) is actually meant for repeated imprecise insertions and has comparable pin density and electrical specification, but thickness of its shell is at the edge of what is practical for various EuroCard-derived backplane systems (which includes PC cases) and thus DSub won.