Just for so many speakers using rubber surrounds instead of foam, ends up checking the box for longevity, for me personally, as long as they are a reputable name. Anything else that could go wrong with the passive components, I could repair. Good surrounds and suspension aren't going to let cones sag or internal parts to rub, which was usually the death of older types. Save for some major electrical malfunction, Speakers should last much longer than they used to.
As far as brand loyalty, I am not so picky these days, because just about any brand with a relatively flat response with adequate frequency range for my purpose, I can, and have been able to make work satisfactorily. Same with neutral amplification. All have been pretty much like starting with a clean slate, with my usual tweaks and countermeasures being pretty much predictably the same across brands. The most common question mark with brands ends up being tweeters being roughly 1db too hot, too cold or just right. All of which is easy enough to fix without much fuss.
My selections tend to be more about size and headroom as always. I don't care how good a speaker is. If it has less than a 6.5" woofer, I will be left hanging (with full range use, at least) on the edge of clipping for as long as I own it unless it is extremely close listening, and even then, I will always be audibly aware of the limitations.
