Flexplates have been an issue ever since torque converters and fluid couplings where added to drivelines. It only requires a slight bit of mis-alignment on any of the 3 planes and the flexplate is the part that have to provide the movement required and eventually cracks. These cracks finally link up and the crankshaft spins in the centre of the flexplate. The most common cause is poor bellhousing castings creating the mis-alignment.
The problem will become a thing of the past when hybrid drives take over as the main transmission choice. The engine then only drives a generator that doubles as a starter motor, the drive is produced by electric motors powered by the generator and/or the battery pack. The engine is no longer connected to the drive train, gear ratios will be selected by a computer that selects which parts of a planetary drive are held, which are the drive component and which are the driven component. This ratio is a constant variable, so no actual gear change is detected, the electric motor spins at its most economical speed and the engine driving the generator also spins at its most economical speed with the fuel metered down a to sniff because it doesn't need to produce big torque or horsepower to drive the generator. Even the load on the generator is controlled by the computer.
Not something that may be developed in the future, it has been around since 1997
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius so it is well proven, just needs pressure for manufacturers to adopt it rather than pure fossil fuel powered engines.
T1 Terry