I've owned 4 Brother printers since the 90s. The first one lasted more than a decade, and I put it through the wringer. The next one lasted about the same, including a stint as EIC of a magazine which meant I printed a ton of proofs on that poor thing. They all worked easily with Linux, to boot.
I currently own two, one color and one multi-function B&W. They don't actually get a ton of usage but <knocks wood> they work when I need them to and I'm not constantly buying toner for the things.
(I'm sure other folks have horror stories because somebody always does no matter what product, but they've served me well enough - and certainly Brother doesn't seem to be as customer hostile as HP.)
1. I'd love to be able to tell my HL-4150 to not clean itself at midnight. Or really any time anyone might be asleep. You have an NTP server connection; use it! OTOH, my dad's Lexmark had that same stupidity. (I love buying professionalish products, but they seem to do everything they can to ensure office products are unusable at home.)
2. I've never experienced toner cartridges that leaked so much as the Brother one (yes, all four.) I ended up buying cheap 3P cartridges, and haven't had the same issue. They royally screwed up the seals/spreader somehow.
That said, it does print and is fast, so as long as I don't let it sit turned on for too long, it works.