There have been reports of the filter membrane breaking apart, resulting in little pieces of filter floating around the engine, not to mention the filter doesn't work very well at that point. It may have very well been a QC issue with a few batches of filters though. I don't use them much anymore but I used to use them all the time and I never had a problem.

With synthetic, yes, there are a ton of opinions. I've always just used dino personally. In general it seems synthetic will decrease wear over the life of the engine, but most modern engines last well over 200K if taken care of with just the standard maintainance/oil/etc. Since I usually get rid of my cars before then, I haven't been able to justify the use of synthetic. If it got me significanly better mileage or performance I might be able to, but both mileage and performance is only marginally increased if at all, and prolonging the life of the engine for the next person that buys my old car isn't a good enough reason. If you're planning on running your cars into the ground I'd say go for it. But even then, you're likely to face expendatures past 200K such as tranny issues, timing belts, brakes, etc. that will make repairs non-cost efficient (more expensive than the car is worth) long before the engine goes out due to using dino oil over synthetic. That's more of a practical financial view of it. Just my 2 cents.