This article is not very helpful. It doesn’t clarify what is meant by the term “green line of death”. Does it brick the phone? Does it make the phone unusable? Is it just annoying? Does it include red lines? Blue lines, black lines, rainbows?
It presents anectdotal evidence of it having happened a lot, but doesn’t give any real numbers. There’s no analysis of the information they do have to say if it’s more often a hardware issue, a software bug, or caused by damage. There’s no indication if there was an attempt to ascertain how often it happens within the warranty period, or if occurrences increase with phone age.
Interviewing a couple friends and a “quick reddit search” is not investigative journalism. The writer didn’t hear back from manufacturers or industry experts, and gave up. So they interviewed a couple more “nerd” friends. Ouch.