Pretty funny, the guy who wrote that's a member here. I'll start-off by stating that ANY stem can crack, theoretically. we've heard tails of stems and bars breaking.

If I were to list the safest, with the best track record of stems, Cinelli would be on or at least among the top. TRACK RECORD; more 1As were sold and used than any other European made stem. FRENCH stems, the pre-1971 types broke. Modolo, I don't think so. They were popular in their beginning, less so the Cin & 3T, in so, have a smaller body of work to compare and I never heard of snappage in those either.
Two failures is two too many in the bike biz. Rumors spread like wilfire. Stems AND bars are replacement items, they have a "half life"; a point at which one ought to replace them. A new stem should be no problem nor should one with light use.
Cinelli was the first to sell great stems some 45 years ago, good ones had been aroungd but since the mid-60s, they'd improved and cont. to improve. The 26.4 size was Cin.'s own, it req. a 26.4(not 26) bar which was standard on Italian bikes.
They creaked, made noise in some instances most all bars could or did. The dif. with the cin. though was that because there were SO many, it was THEY who got the bad rap. The odds were aginst them. Thousands of ber/stems, a few squeekers.
just make sure you have a 26.4 bar made by Cinelli or to FIT that Cin. stem.