Have there been any reported failures of non 00 00 HB's yet? Is it possible that even the newer ones are prone to failure, but just haven't had the "time" to do so yet?

What is the reason that Mercedes implemented the belt pulley on the portion of the HB that's doing the dampening? On another vehicle of mine, the weighted portion that does the dampening isn't driving any of the accessories, but instead, the pulley is on the same portion of the balancer that's directly connected to the crankshaft.