Had a mag when the Egli was new. It burnt out after a few miles and was rebuilt. Never easy to start, being (in those days) short legged and fairly light. Crunch came when the mag on my Ariel gave up the ghost as well, so I changed Ariel and Egli to coil ignition (twin points - twin coil on the Egli).
Coil ignition never let me down (that I remember). If you're paranoid you can always drop a spare set of points in the toolbox and fit a standby coil. Short of losing the charging system, you can usually get home with a bit of ingenuity and lateral thinking.
Used Boyer Bransden transisterised ignition (with points) for some time. It improved things to some extent, and didn't wear out the points.
2010 rebuild. Discounted BTH because of bad press at the time. I fitted Pazon Surefire in place of the points system. Easy starting, smooth running, "fit and forget"(?). Mine is the cheaper, simpler version than most Vins seem to use (can't remember the name of the other one) and the only problem I've found so far is that there is no way of knowing exactly where the ignition timing is, unless you set up a strobe - a real pain at first, but worth the effort.
Just my experiences, I know people swear by mags, I only ever remember swearing at them!
H