Racks mounted without eyelets and the catastrophic failures which love them.
I've been looking at a lot of bikes and have settled on the Tricross over other models which suit my needs because it has front fork eyelets and I have touring in my foreseeable future. However I have been reading about Old Man Mountain racks which mount on the brake bosses, as well as people using rubber adaptors to mount racks on bikes without eyelets on the front or the rear.
After looking far and wide for a deal on a used Tricross and coming up short I've been pondering whether eyelets should be such a selling point for me. Mechanically speaking, does the frame actually bare the weight more robustly when attached via eyelet screws? Should rubber adaptors and brake bosses be considered compromises? Should eyelets be preferred to these other options, or are they all viable and interchangeable? I've assumed that since eyelets are "built in" to the frame they are a superior option for loaded touring but without any real experience or knowledge of why this would be true or false.
Specific to the Tricross, it has a carbon fork with eyelets. Carbon sometimes gives people catastrophic failure anxiety. Does that enhance the need to use a rack which mounts on the fork eyelets or diminish the need?