This is a great thread. Worthwhile to make a summary of it available to all.

I sent an email to Galloway today and indicated I bought one of their guide rods a while ago, and was worried about it... they dispatched a new one to me, without hesitation, to replace the old one -- at no cost to me. I am impressed by their service and their attitude towards this whole thing, which I think is very professional. The problem can be defined as a small number of frames don't play well with their guide rods, and I guess you could blame the guide rods -- or the frames. (I've also seen some reports of factory plastic guide rods breaking, which may have a similar -- or a totally different -- cause).

Do the newly redesigned guide rods cause a problem? I suspect they are far less likely to do so. I'm going to run the new GP guide rod (I love shooting the SD; the darn thing is just plain reliable) for a while but keep an eye on the tabs inside the frame over time. I like to give all pistols a more stringent cleaning (e.g., the striker channel, inside mag wells, inside mags, etc.) about once a year or so, and I look for things like excessive wear or damage, so I don't think I'll be caught by surprise.

Added (3/7/17): Shortly after my post (above) I came to the conclusion I would return to the factory guide rod and spring, which I have done. I've only shot the SD9 a couple of times in the past three months, but the factory guide rod works well and I think I will stick with it.

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S&W Rover