I guess YMMV, but I have 15 Milwaukee batteries that are a few years old, 7-18V, some bought used, and 8-12v, some bought used and they are all still going strong. I've yet to wear out a M12 or M18 battery and I use them almost daily, and certainly weekly. I just finished a large demo and refloor including cutting out the entire floor, joists and all and starting over 22X32 feet, and used all my Milwaukee tools including cordless lights, running them down til they went out, and that's a typical job for us.
Just for grins, I bought a couple of new tools for the guys to use, and we'll see if they are better or worse than the Milwaukees we use every day. I got a set drill and impact driver, Makita sub-compact black ones that are as small as or smaller than most 12v tools, and a Hercules 12v screwdriver. We drive a lot of sheet metal self drilling screws and an impact usually will blast them in so fast and strong that they strip out, but the little Makita impact has a gentle setting, so we'll see. The drill is pretty nice and powerful, but not in a league with the 18v Milwaukee, nor needed to be. The Hercules is another option for driving sheet metal screws, fast rpm on high speed to drill the screw in and a clutch to stop it before stripping out.
You just have to find the tools for the job. I would suspect for home use, not everyday hard knocks use, any of the 12v or 18v drills with a clutch would do a fine job. I will say I'm tired of the 12v drills that the battery fits up inside the handle, they're just not as comfortable to use as the bottom batteries like DeWalt and some of the others use, but tha's subjective.
