Oh the XR’s are 10 times more durable, but the newer bikes are so much more powerful. It’s a trade off, the more racier the motor the more maintenance. Had an ‘84 xr250r snap the cam on half, there’s where my smartass comments come from. Went about trying to fix it, too many unavailable or ridiculously expensive parts and wasn’t really too keen on rebuilding with used parts. Sweet bikes but it’s going to cost you three times more than it should, and after riding the race bikes it just wouldn’t be the same, so I abandoned the notion.
I live near the city and do a lot of motocross and stupid technical off-road and new fresh machines are widely available so my choices are not limited to what I can ride. If I lived in the country and had few options and an old XR fell in my lap damn right I would ride it and do my best to keep it going. I just have a different perspective.