All the strips I have say that the switch can be used for switching the load. The wall warts do a decent job of buffering the device from spikes anyways. Most likely problemis that the switch wears out on the strip and has to be replaced, negating your savings. Heat/cool cycles for electronics can lead to eventual failure, but then again I've had electronics fail from being on all the time (and getting too hot) as well. In the tech world, stuff almost always lasts longer than it's actually useful anyways.
I switch mine off at night and don't turn it on the next day until I need it. I'm at 4 years of doing that with my current equipment.