Yes, enhanced (wider, heavier) drums CAN help the rigs meet the regs, but it sounds like discs are better in every way except initial cost ... and that sounds like it can easily be recovered in reduced maintenance (according to here:
Weighing in on disc brakes | Equipment content from Fleet Owner). One of the key points in this article that surprised me is that the wheels of the rig have to be removed to do brake inspection if the axle is equipped with drums, whereas they don't have to be removed if the axle is equipped with discs. Not sure how often that has to be done, but Wow! There might be a slight weight penalty for the discs too, though that depends on how they are made apparently.
I agree that there are probably some crappy disc brake systems... the piston (pistons? can't remember if it was single pot or not) of one caliper on my Honda Magna's front discs (had a rear drum) also froze up... remember going for a ride and hitting the brakes and having them stick on one side... again, being a young punk & not knowing any better, I rode it home that way. The disc was near red hot when I got home. Fortunately, the disc was easy to replace and the caliper was easy to rebuild.