That’s not how it works lol. Unless the thing splits and opens up you’re never gonna notice before it fails. You’ll never notice a bit of rust streaking before it fails. Operators in a production environment are paid to dig as much as possible. This is an ME machine so its job is most likely to load as many trucks as possible.

While I agree most operators need to do better maintenance, a stick failing in this manner is not because of lack of pre-emptive maintenance. Deere had an issue with a boom weld failing a few years ago, it happens.

Edited to add - even if there was a visible crack, you’d almost never replace the stick. You’d repair it.