Rohloff Splined Sprocket wear

[PH]

...
 It's sometimes advised to use a lockring carrier instead, that's a £100 experiment (Carrier + tool).  I'd be interested to hear of anyone who went that route, the interface between sprocket and carrier looks identical, so I'm not sure it is the solution.

Would the tool be necessary?  It is my understanding that the tool is absolutely necessary if used on a belt drive sprocket because that sprocket is wider.  But the chain type sprocket is flat.

I don't know, I've never had one in my hand, Rohloff say tighten to 30Nm and there isn't a lot to get hold of, I'm sure you could tighten with something else, I don't have anything in my toolbox that'd do.  If you didn't get it tight enough, it has no advantage over the clip
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/images/products/medium/51546.jpg

[PdE]

Well, I thought it was just me that had a distinctly unfavorable opinion of splined carrier/sprocket combination.

When the splined carrier and sprocket come out, and the splined sprockets were considerably less expensive and easier to change than the old threaded sprocket I jumped at the chance to install it on my hub.  At about 5,000 miles I noticed a certain amount of lateral play in the sprocket.  But having full faith in Rohloff engineering I didn't pay much attention.  And then with about 8,000 miles on that setup, the splines on the carrier stripped, letting the sprocket rotate freely and leaving me stranded 12 miles from home.  The only time that Rohloff has ever failed me.

I was fortunate to find a shop that could to remove the stripped carrier (not an easy task since the usual Rohloff tool and chain whip process would not work) and I installed an extra threaded sprocket that I had hanging around.  I found someone on eBay that had 4 threaded 14-tooth sprockets for sale and bought them all.

I currently have about 82,000 miles on my hub and am about to reverse the first sprocket so I should get another 7-8,000 miles before I need to install #2.  I figure that with what I have on hand I should be able to hit 125,000 miles in 5-6 years and maybe by that time either Rohloff will have gone back to thread-on sprockets, or I can go the after market route.

Does anyone know if Rohloff has addressed this issue, or have they just been laying low?