I have changed many, many engine mounts in my life in the automotive business. Front wheel drive vehicles, rear wheel drive vehicles and all wheel drive vehicles have failed mounts sometimes. Some failed because of their age, some were obviously subjected to years of oil leaking and failed for that reason and of course, the mounts that were subjected to brutality could fail at any time.
As for stiffness of a mount, I can only offer this. On our trawler with a Cummins QSB 6.7 liter Diesel, we chased noise and vibration for a few years. It is a long story but I finally turned to an engineer who specializes in marine vibration abatement and paid him to help us solve the issue. He recommended a set of mounts that reduced interior noise by 10 dBA! He explained that the trick with boat engine mounts is to find the weight you need to support and then to specify a mount that hits as close to the middle of that with its weight range. That apparently is the sweet spot for noise abatement. Of course different mount designs handle different kinds of loads too. As far as I understand, it is a complex subject.