If spring failures are a "chronic problem" on P32's, then I must be extremely lucky or something. I've got two Gen1 P32's and Wifey has a Gen2 P32, all with a few hundred rounds apiece through 'em over the years. Only failures I've experienced with them have either been ammo-related (rimlock due to shorter overall length with the Lehigh Defense "Xtreme Cavitator" rounds) or from improper grip (dragging a thumb on the side of the slide, slowing its movement and causing a malfunction). Never had any springs break as of yet. Does that mean they'll last forever? Of course not. At some point, I'm sure a spring will wear out eventually. Thinking I might buy a few spare springs just in case, since I don't expect Kel-Tec to keep making them indefinitely. And whenever a spring wears out and/or breaks, no biggie, I'll just replace it and continue on.
From what I gather, your concern is there was a spring failure that occurred with a low round count. Okay. It happens. Again, these aren't exactly built like tanks. They're made to be ultra-small, ultra-light, and as such, things aren't exactly built beefy. Even when not taking that into consideration, a bad spring doesn't exactly mean the gun is cursed or poorly built. Springs depend upon metallurgy, which can be a fickle thing at times when involved in mass production. Every once in awhile, there's a defective part because there was a hiccup in the production of, say, a spring. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm fairly certain Kel-Tec doesn't manufacture their own springs. They likely outsource them from other companies that specialize in such things, and due to production/logistical issues, sometimes they don't always use the same company. As such, now and then there might be an oops. Again, it happens. Literally every brand of firearm I've owned over the years (yes, including Glock) has had one thing or another with some kinda issue - sometimes minor, sometimes major - but that, in itself, doesn't cause me to distrust everything made by that company. What causes me to distrust a company and/or their given product is when the failures are VERY CONSISTENT - like, you send it back to be fixed and it comes back to you and it's still jacked up - either due to crappy production quality and/or poor design, or if the company is aware there's a problem and either publicly denies it's an issue or tries to hide it or generally refuses to address the issue (cough Remington cough). I'm not inclined to believe the P32 falls into that sorta category. Given, Kel-Tec has made a few things over the years which have been, to say the least, a tad bit fussy (PMR-30/CMR-30, PLR-16, PF9), but they've also made some things which have been relatively trouble-free for the vast majority of their owners (P11, P32, KSG, KS7, P3AT) without a lot of issues due to design or production quality.
If a spring failure means your faith in the P32 (or perhaps Kel-Tec products, in general) is absolutely shattered and you can never bring yourself to trust it enough to carry it, even after replacing said spring, then by all means, get rid of it and go with something you feel you can trust. I get it, really. I still kinda get the heebie-jeebies in the back of my mind about carrying my Sig P320 because of all the reports of accidental discharges (NOT negligent discharges, I'm talking about pistols firing on their own while still in a holster) that have occurred with them over the years due to their design, even after the supposed "upgrade" (aka RECALL) and changes made to current-production P320's. I've never had such a malfunction with my P320 where it's been bumped and caused to fire, or otherwise discharged at any time when it shouldn't. Heck, I even took a rubber mallet to the back of it once while I was at the range and gave it a few whacks to the back of the slide with a loaded chamber (pointed downrange, obviously) and it wouldn't discharge. But I still have that kinda ehhhhhh feeling in the back of my mind that perhaps isn't entirely logical and is probably just emotionally-based that keeps me from wanting to carry it much. As such, I haven't carried it a lot, really. And in fact, I'm very seriously considering getting rid of it and all the stupid crap I bought to support it (mags galore, holsters, grip frames, an extra slide assembly) simply because I don't feel too great about it. It's a mental/emotional comfort thing, I guess. I know a lot of other officers that just think the P320 is the greatest pew-pew ever and they absolutely refuse to carry Glocks. Me, I'm not crazy about Glocks, and I struggle to shoot them accurately, but they do work, and the only reports of them going off unintentionally invariably involve negligence and/or a bad holster (or no holster at all). And then there's some folks who won't carry anything without a manual safety lever because the Glock trigger dongle thingy seems inadequate. To each their own.
Carry what makes YOU feel right. All's I's sayin' is, at least for me, that little spring issue wouldn't be enough to stop me from trusting my P32. It would be annoying, sure, but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me. Again, to each their own.
