It always brings me joy when I see that people think a slightly dirty bore snake is doing major damage to their bores when they are firing lead/copper/brass projectiles at thousands of feet per second through that same barrel.
Are people trying to pull pistol snakes through their rifles? Otherwise at least one end should be accessible from one end. If it breaks you should be able to pull it through. Although I have a hard time believing that half of the people that claim breakage actually have experienced one.
Use them properly and they work.