I've burst sidewalls on old 27" tyres that had been sitting around too long. And on a cheap 22" tyre that was left in the sun (oops).
Never ripped a Marathon. I'm using Marathon Pluses, and had the ATB variant previously; I agree about the grip, but haven't really had much experience with other long-life tyres. The ATBs were a bit dodgy around corners on sealed surfaces, not confidence inspiring.
I could never justify to myself the price of the top-tier Schwalbes, so can't comment on those. Oh: my friend got 28 (twenty eight) punctures in one afternoon in a particular region of Kazakhstan thanks to some type of super-thorn, using Extremes or some such. Anything can be punctured!