I can only give my experience. My dad taught me to shoot his WWII issue Colt 1911-A1 when I was about 6 or 7, and I instantly fell in love. It was my favorite handgun of his to shoot. When I was about 8, he told me that if I was going to shoot it, I was going to clean it. He handed me a WWII Bluejacket's Manual, and told me he'd check it out when I was done. He and I put countless 1000s of rounds through that pistol, and I don't remember ever having a failure of any kind. And that was with all the maintenance being done by an 8 year old. (Hoppes #9, a bore brush, and 3-in-1 oil)
In the late 70s/early 80s I bought a 1942 made Remington Rand 1911-A1 that had seen LOTS of use. I've since many thousands of rounds through it, and had one magazine-related failure last year (slide failed to lock back). The magazine spring was worn out (original magazine). I wouldn't even try to guess how many rounds this pistol has had through it. The guy I bought it from said he had it for about 20 years, and apparently had rarely cleaned it. The barrel looks like hell. It shoots smooth as glass though, so I'm not changing a thing on it until something breaks (probably sometime in 2020!).
Basically, anyone who says the 1911-A1 is prone to failure, is unreliable, is finicky, and requires a lot of maintenance, is either full of crap, or is buying oddball mutant designs. Just buy a 1911, have an 8 year old maintain it with Hoppes and sewing machine oil, and put a couple of hundred thousand rounds through it.
In nearly 50 years of shooting a 1911, I have never once dropped the magazine while I was firing it. I did have the slide bite me ONCE when I was 9 or 10 when think I limp-wristed it. That's a mistake you only make once!
