The key is not to tailgate, shouldn't need to heavy brake.
Power drums with quality parts can be very reliable, they have been long before disks came along.
I don’t tailgate, I drive for a living. If you are in heavy traffic where the speed limit is above 45, repeated heavy braking is fairly standard around here. I daily drove a manual steering, manual drum brake Dart in Southern California and the best upgrade I ever did on that car was disc brakes.