I have had fade failure. It was with properly adjusted Tektro Aries using the OEM organic pads that were about the size of a penny. I would get fade descending that city block towards Seward Park. Truly awful. The worst was one time descending into Mukilteo at 30-ish MPH. I watched the stoplight about half way down cycle from green to yellow to red. I slowed from 30 to 20mph and there was no more. No matter how hard I pulled the lever there was simply no more braking to be had. I had plenty of lever. What I didn't have was any more ability to convert kinetic energy to heat. As I rapidly approached the intersection, wonder turned to panic, turned to quick thinking. I stuffed my foot into the rear brake bridge BMX-style, hastily stopping in the intersection in front of a bunch of cars that very plainly had the green light. They were very kind in and stopped for me. Whether or not they recognized the state of emergency is another matter.

I chucked the blued 160mm rotors in the trash & upgraded to Avid BB7's and 180mm rotors the next day.

For myself, if the pad is smaller than a Shimano B01S, I'm not interested. Even with full-on hydraulic brakes, I continue to be unimpressed with the lever squeeze effort required on 160mm rotors, unless they are made by Carbon-Ti. (Carbon-Ti, IME are particularly grabby but wear quickly) For all other offerings, including Shimano's IceTech 180/160 is my preference. Which IIRC is the bike industry recommended rotor size for a person of my weight, anyhow.

I weigh 180 pounds, FWIW.