As one of those who did have trouble, I'd say the problem was more with the plastic buckles than the fact that the hoist had four straps. If you are somewhat handy, I believe "The Lews" wrote somewhere about how he modified the 4-strapper to use heavy-duty ratchet-style straps that appear to be fairly fail-safe.
By the way, and maybe only coincidentally, the company which sold me mine seems to have vanished.
