I really don't think they are stronger, stock measures 1mm more than gates in thickness and is better quality IMO! That being said, it all about piece of mind. You will hear stories of people getting 100k on a stock timing belt and stuff like that. It really comes down to this: how would you feel if you had to do 2-4k worth of work to fix what a broken timing belt can do, also with you saying that you are going to spend 700-1000 on a tb tells me that you aren't doing it yourself, so that 2-4k can be even more depending on where you go!
