I would count easy to strip as deficient. But I almost never strip them. If you're stripping screws, either your technique is bad or the screws are garbage.
No, there are lots of situations where Phillips just aren't good enough. We have marine applications with small, 316 stainless screws into metal where they'd commonly get a bit gummed up and become extremely easy to strip and get stuck. Since switching everything to Torx (or hex for larger bolts), we've never had a problem with any screws getting stuck or damaged. Same manufacturer of the screws, same sizes, same materials, just different head.
Now I use Torx or hex head screws for my personal projects too because they're so much easier to work with once you have some drivers.
> If you're stripping screws, either your technique is bad or the screws are garbage.
Or you're asking for more than the screws are good for. I work in R&D. I've had to do things with fasteners that no one should have to do... and I know this because we redesigned that BS as soon as we could. Phillips has given me plenty of trouble in anything harder than light duty use. Torx and hex have both always been fine. Even if hex is theoretically not very good, somehow it's always good enough in the real world. (The availability of hex ball drivers probably accounts for at least some of this. But now there are Torx ball drivers too!) I've got JIS Phillips, I've got American Phillips, I've got DIN/ISO Phillips, I can tell the difference between them, I know when to use all of them, and I can confidently say I hate 'em all.
Software engineers should understand that one of the great tragedies of life is having to interact with things that an incompetent person touched before you.
