It's a good engine, and indeed is one of the best engines in a production car.
Personally i think the 1.3 Wankel in an RX-8 is far more technically advanced, but that's neither here nor there as that engine has limited life, most V-Tecs don't, at least not in the conventional sense.
No they don't have a "limited life" you're thinking of triple rotor turbo nutter RX-7- there's plenty around with over 60k on the clock and no problems