Strange - I've never had a 5 ¼“ ODD that hasn't failed. Some after a few years, some after a few months. Some after nearly no use at all, just being installed in a system. In the end I entirely gave up buying them from the combination of rarely needing them and seeing them fail constantly. Oddly enough, no mobile/slim ODD has ever failed on me, including the two I have lying around currently (at least they both worked the last time I checked).
There are CF/SD to IDE adapters if you want that, or SD-based floppy emulators if that's more your thing (including for really vintage non-PC systems). The emulators are no doubt a lot more expensive than an old ODD, but the convenience factor would more than make up for that IMO. The SD adapters are dirt cheap even.