Firstly I should say that I know absolutely nothing about how GoPros transfer data to other devices, especially external drives, but I suppose that it's via USB (hopefully 3.0) and some onboard software. Anyway, on to drives.
It's often a matter of luck, as to whether you get a long-lasting soundly-operating drive or not. That's why you get such a variation of people for and against a particular make; presumably based on direct or anecdotal evidence. There's also the question of how many of a make are out there. More usually means more chance of duff ones turning up, and less amplifies the comparative failure rate.
The three remaining manufacturers of hard disk drives are Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital (WD-who now own Hitachi drives). Each has enhanced what is essentially the same sort of device, in various ways, but, in theory, they should, as you say, perform and last the same. That they don't is down, IMHO, mainly to enclosure design etc., followed by user treatment/resistance.
This last is quite important, as in a portable drive, you're expecting a lot of sturdiness from a precision electro-mechanical device, which may suffer all kinds of shocks and ill-treatment.
WD drives had a poor reputation at one time, as being cheap, cheerful and unreliable, but they seem to have improved greatly.
Sound advice from @mattyb240 and @NotTheStig, but I'm not sure that you'd be able to back up to an online or cloud account without having or accessing a computer of some sort, besides the GoPro and drive. I guess using several high-capacity SD cards is not practical, as well as being very expensive.
Personally, I'd go for a WD drive, probably a My Passport Ultra model.