First, I doubt your "powerhead into the filter" method would work very well if you had a dead canister filter. Likely the impeller would retard your flow rate and you may plain not be able to get enough pressure to get a decent GHP through it anyways.
That said, people have had Eheim canisters that run non-stop for YEARS. Your chances of getting a dud Eheim are pretty low. I personally use a Filstar XP3 which I have been very happy with. However, if rapid replacements weren't available I'd probably spend the money and go for an Eheim instead or perhaps get two XP3s.
A lot of people will also run a small separate HOB filter in addition to their main canister as a backup option. AquaClear are very common and can be purchased online inexpensively (an AC300 or 500 are common sizes). That way, if for some reason your canister died you'd be ok long enough to get it replaced.
The two brands you mentioned I've not heard of and probably wouldn't trust them. Remember, in this hobby you generally get what you paid for. Cheaping out may be inviting disaster down the road.
If you are really paranoid, you could purchase a spare motor assembly for your canister. If your main was to die, then you have a spare.
You could also get two Filstars for the price of one Eheim and either shelf the second one as a spare, or run it in tandem as a redundant.
It really boils down to how much money you are willing to spend for how much reliability.
