I’ve never even had that. Sold a heavily used 2008 MacBook with its original charger last month with no signs of fraying or problems. I’m yet to have a charger die on me in any way.

I've seen that from some models made in ~'08-'09, the cables do not fray.

I have 2013 rmbp 13" I have handled my charger with great care avoiding as much twisting ant touching as possible, and after around 20 months, cable isolation just tore up by touching it.. It seems that cable isolation is made of such plastic, that it completely degrades after some time..

Haven't had the issue with computer cables, but had the exact issue with iphone cables. The plastic apple uses for their cables is just weird, with friction or stress (just the stress of looping it around) it seems to gain a slightly rubberised texture, bulk up and ultimately come apart over time. I do have hints on that on a magsafe cable-end, close to the magsafe where the little plastic clip usually sits there's a lot of friction and the cable has gone dark-gray, whereas on the rest of the cable the clip can just slide along.

+1 they are weird compared to other cables..

Compared to any other cable in the market Apple's cables feel, look and handle way different. When charger cable is new it feels rather hard and inflexible. But later especially in areas where you touch cable the most, it starts changing colour and starts feeling like old rubber eraser and after some more time cable starts falling apart, just like old dry rubber eraser would do..

Apple want's matt white cables, when usually they are glossy black. I have some super sturdy audio cables (very flexible, resistant to twisting, friction and sharp angles, etc.) which are matt black, wonder how hard it is to make such cable white?

Same here. Never had a frayed end, but have had the magnetic connector get really dirty, which causes it to either get REALLY hot when charging, or just stop charging completely.

One time I just bought a replacement connector/cable, disassembled the power supply, and soldered the new cable in place. That worked for a while.

The second time I just bought a new charger. (Well: two new chargers, actually. The first, which was listed on amazon as made by apple, never worked [I believe it was counterfeit, since some very small details differ from the official charger], so I bought a new one at best buy).

The magnetic connector attracts any little bits of iron oxide lying around. It’s easy to clean with a q-tip soaked in alcohol though.

I've had the same problem. That being said, I've never had a pair of headphones that didn't short out, so maybe I'm just not good to my cables.