These boots were made for…

What are the typical points of failure you observe? Sole detachment, sole wear, upper tears or something else?
I easily get 200-300 miles out of trail-runners. These are the like $65 NewBalance type, so nothing super light or minimal. I don't grumble over the mileage, because they are trail runners but I might if they were $250 boots. That said I doubt $150 trail runners last any longer.

My old Danner Mountain Lights are still going strong–bought them in '98 or so for around $200, and I think I've re-soled them three times. No idea how many miles. Just too heavy for me to consider for regular wear.

I have a pair of Inov8 295s that are about done, and I bought them in March–sole is sticky rubber and it wears quick. Probably 200 trail miles, and quite a bit of around-town use. Didn't expect more miles, and I'll gladly buy another pair. If they were $75 instead of $100, I wouldn't complain. I wouldn't call the materials cheap, and they are well made (in China), but durability has definitely been sacrificed for light weight and superior traction.

No question that traditional full leather boots are a better deal (and some are still US made) *if* you don't mind wearing 2# on each foot. These days, I do.

Similar miles to Inov8 with my last two pairs of trail runners (Keen Ridgeline) except both pairs developed a cut into the outsole heel, which let water into the midsole, which resulted in a really annoying squeak every time they got wet.

I pushed a pair of '08 Montrail Hardrocks about 1200-1300 miles, but they were toast. I have another pair of the exact shoe with over 500 miles on them and they still have plenty of life left, but I don't want to trash 'em since they're my Katahdin shoes.

Right now I'm rocking some Montrail Mountain Masochists and I'd say they've got over 400 miles and are starting to show signs of wear around the soles, but still look pretty new. But these have mainly seen use in TN, NC and VA so light to moderately rocky trails.

Most people I know with trail runners have them fall totally apart around 200-300 miles. I think I just pay more attention to where I put my feet than others.

Shouldn't there be a compromise possible though?

I mean those Walshes from the minimalist shoe overview have genuinely tough uppers and are resolable (UK only I think) but are still very light overall. Now they're dedicated fell shoes so very soft rubber and an aggressive tread but I have no idea how long it'll take me to properly kill my pair.

Surely there is nothing in principle stopping the same sort of thing also being applied to something a bit more cushioned/tougher rubber for harder pack trails etc?

You'd never get quite as light as say inov8 but could get rather close. If nothing else the (considerable!) hassle of shoe replacement might well drive me to try and find something like this sometime.

Suspect most people simply don't care enough to think about resoling etc nowadays :(