I can count on zero hands the number of times I've been on a sailboat where everything worked perfectly. This is a function of cost moreso than criticality, but the amount of time and energy required to upkeep a sailing appliance that consistently endures some of the worst things nature can throw at it would practically require replacing every part with every sail.
Sailboats shake, vibrate, and shudder as they are subjected to wind and waves. Topside parts enjoy the added joy of being continuously subjected to sun, salt, and wind.
In short, things break. Slightly longer, it is fair to expect that on any given day, something will be broken. Whether a car that holds a mainsail to its mast, or a fuse that powers your navigation equipment, or what have you, those systems are great and wonderful so long as they are operational, but if you are halfway across the Atlantic ocean, hundreds of miles away from the nearest land mass in the dark, there is no Radio Shack to visit, and no way to find it without having to fall back to a compass and some celestial orientation.
No matter how good they are advertised as being, absolutely zero systems should be considered trustworthy in a big sea.
There is no Radio Shack for marine electronics, but it'd be great if there were.
And my understanding is that if celestial navigation isn't good enough you are probably close enough to land to just navigate based on sight and map.