Darby wrote:
Don't buy EVA based shoes if you want a lot of miles out of them.
Anything with TPU and good full coverage rubber outsole will last much longer.
Examples: saucony freedoms/triumphs, adidas boston/ultraboost/*boost, reebok floatride forever energy.
It also helps being light and not having weird footstrike patterns.
This is right. The TPU shoes of today are far, far more durable than anything produced in the past. The midsoles essentially will not wear out. I've only ever replaced TPU shoes when the uppers are falling apart, the outsoles have worn away, or when they just look disgusting. But they still have the same bounce as when they were new.
It may be that your experience is with lower density EVA. As another poster pointed out, expectations are that shoes will be very light these days. It's crazy to me that anything over 9 oz is considered heavy today, whereas that's about what the "high performance' DS Trainer weighed in the late 90s.
It's also possible that you're wearing more cushioned shoes now. It's much harder to notice thinner midsoles wearing out because they didn't have all that much bounce to begin with, and even when they bottom out, they don't get weird and lumpy underfoot.