Barring the basic "you-did-something-wrong" reasons, what's the general feel on the reliability of a 6 month or 1 year ED visa in the near future? Do people think it's getting more and more strict, or that it's likely to be denied/canceled at one of the 90day extensions without obvious "cause" (poor attendance, failing language spot test, etc.)?

In the next year, I'm looking at possibly doing the ED visa to learn Thai (I actually want to learn Thai), or to do some uni study. I'd just hate to invest the money if the visa has a high chance of becoming invalid for reasons out of my control.