It's rare for a brake arm to break without a fair amount of provocation. In the 70's and 80's, Schwinn made a fair number of bicycles where the front brake would hit the frame when the wheel was swung around too far, and I saw quite a few that had been bent pretty severely without breaking (like, 30 degrees or so).

If you'd like another method of toeing the pads, you might shop for some brake pads that have swivels, such as Kool Stop models, or try some V-brake-style pads, which come with swivel hardware as well.

How well your brakes work depends on a lot of factors. If you can induce rear-wheel lift with heavy braking on the front, then they're pretty good. If you can squeeze the levers hard and the bike doesn't slow down very quickly, they're not very good, if that's not overstating the obvious. Are the bike's wheel rims aluminum, by the way? That is preferable to chromed steel, particularly in wet conditions where the chromed-steel rims are extremely slick.