I definitely haven’t had the same experience. Anything I get that is pleather ends up breaking down sooner rather than later (especially thrifted pleather). Hell, my favorite pair of pleather pants recently lost a dish sized area by the crotch, and those were bought new from a brand I trust. I had to fix a huge patch in my partner’s bag recently, and virtually every pair of pleather boots has ended up in the trash. I have a long pleather skirt that basically ripped from floor to waist that I’m still deciding whether to fix or not.

I will add the disclaimer that I’m an experienced leatherworker which affects my bias

I rarely get real leather new, and when it fails it’s rarely the actual leather. I have a jacket I thrifted about a decade ago that is still going strong, though I’ve had to replace the buttons a few times. My most recent leather boots survived multiple camping trips and heavy use, until the plastic zipper broke. Even my leatherwork mainly uses repurposed scraps. At this point my partner and I refuse to buy/use a daily purse that is anything but leather because of how long it lasts. It’s worth repairing leather, it’s not worth repairing pleather.