Professional Guitarists all over the world will agree that the most they can hope for is a weeks worth of use, out of a set of strings, because of the bends they make. This pales in comparison to the bending and constant stretching that pedal steels do. If you are breaking strings or having tuning problems, chances are you're not changing often enough. Changing strings compares to changing the oil in your car. You wouldn't go 15000 miles per change and expect your engine to sound and perform right.
Steel guitars are machines as well as a music producing source.
Modern manufactured steels have become state of the art. Strings are still being made the way they were 40 yrs. They can't take the constant stretching from the pedals over a long period, and still keep their sustain and tuning. When I lived in Detroit I kept strings on forever until they either broke or started to have that awful zinging sound. In the studio I change every 3 to 7 days.