the footswitch aint exactly sturdy, but it aint as bad as all the horror story online
if you are not a rockstar touring week after week with the same gear stomped on every few nights or violent stomper, the footswitch be able to last for a while. Mine lasted for about 4-5 years plus before the first footswitch became a bit insensitive to stomping.
And even if the footswitch fail, its ok, Randolf, aka embryo in the forum here, has mods and solution for the dl4, inclusive of the footswitch repair/upgrading.
Dl4, when it came out round y2k, it was one of first few delay, in pedal format, with those features(multi delay setting, looping, stored differnt setting etc) it soon caught on players who need choices and dont want to lug their expensive delay night in and out on tour. As such, many of them who need delay in pedal format, with plenty delay type, went for it and thus its one of the frequently seen delay on some of those big name player' board
Since then, there are many other delay pedals with similar if not more features in it that came about
Anyway, imho, dl 4
is a great tool if able to find the right context to utilise the features inside...
is overkill(too much features)if delay, to the one playing, just to use it for sound thickening, slapback or slight reverb-ish delay etc.