I guess I'm part of that lucky elite group too! Living in London, use
my Oyster almost daily, and haven't had any problems at all. I love
that I just don't have to worry about buying tickets or queueing at all
with auto top-up on it.
I don't know of any friends that have had problems either. Are you sure
it might not just be you who's in the minority here, and are you sure
you haven't just walked through gates even though you got an error beep
or anything?