I've heard lots of those horror stories as well about crank pulleys messing up motors if they arent harmonic dampeners. There are lots of internet forum debates over the topic, and im not trying to make us sit here and argue whether or not they actually damage stuff if they are just solid pieces.
To be honest, I have two small toyotas, both used as daily drivers, that originally came with harmonic pulleys. I have replaced those and have been running solid pulleys with no problems for about 5 years now, for over 50,000 miles!
I also personally know at least 10 other people who own, civics, 240SX, MR2s, etc, who have these solid pulleys as well and have been running fine for several years. The MR2 and Corolla AE86 crowd say a lot of good things about the NST stuff so I decided to share the link with some other fellow toyota tuners.
Like i said, not trying to start a theoretical forum war here, just stating my own personal experience.