SiteStripe vs PA-API: the link-rot tax is 11x

SiteStripe vs PA-API: the link-rot tax is 11x
Manual SiteStripe links break silently when an ASIN goes out of print. We tracked n=1,840 in-content links over 6 months.
— SiteStripe (manual): 9.2% dead by month 6, zero alerts
— PA-API (programmatic): auto-swapped on Availability change, 0.8% dead
EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) on dead links rounds to $0.00 — a broken link still eats a click.
The tradeoff: PA-API needs 3 qualifying sales in 180 days to keep access, and rate caps start at 8,640 calls/day. SiteStripe never gets revoked.
So what: if you have under ~30 affiliate URLs, SiteStripe is fine. Past ~100, the manual link-rot tax outweighs the API setup cost.