IME heat is a significant factor with spindle drives. People will buy enterprise-class drives, then stick them in enclosures and computer cases that don't flow much air over it, leading to the motor and logic board getting much warmer than they should.
I have four of those drives mentioned and the one that did fail had the highest maximum temperature according to the SMART data. It was still within the specs though by about 6 degrees Celsius.
The drives are spaced apart by empty drive slots and have a 12cm case fan cranked to max blowing over it at all times.
It is in a tower though so maybe it was bumped at some time and that caused the issue. Being in the top slot this would have had the greatest effect on the drive. I doubt it though.
Usage is low and the drives are spinning 24/7.
Still I think I am cursed when it comes to Seagate.
With the added complication that the controller should be kept cool, but the flash should run warm.
The NVMe drives in my servers have these little aluminium cases on them as part of the hotswap assembly. They manage the temperature differential by using a conductive pad for the controller, but not the flash.
This. My new Samsung T7 SSD overheated and took 4T of kinda priceless family photos with it. Thank you Backblaze for storing those backups for us!
I missed the return window on the SSD so now have a little fan running to keep the thing from overheating again
