We've had ours for 6 years, I haven't noticed many scratches in the front. Ours isn't installed 'properly' because we had existing "temporary" (now permanent) laminate counters to work with so the height doesn't bother me one bit.

Ours is a generic/cheap one. I've noticed if you pour boiling water in, it 'pops' the sink - I think this is just to it being cheap. It also gets VERY grimey - which I can only think is due to water - i.e. pasta water sitting on it longer since it's very low slope to drain (again it may be so low because it's cheap). We also have a grid in the bottom so it makes the daily cleaning a little more cumbersome as I have to lift the grid up and use my dish scrubbing brush to wipe the entire bottom clean (I also use the scrubber brush to clean all the corners - horizontal and vertical.)

I still like the aesthetics, love the statement it makes in our farm house, love that it's single bowl. I won't bother replacing it until it's needed and frankly I'll probably get the same thing since I cut down the sink base cabinet but in my next house I'll just opt for an undermount with slightly radiused corners and a little bit steeper slope at the bottom of the basin.

Thank you for your feedback. My design will be more modern than farmhouse and my next choice was an undermount sink with a 1/8" negative reveal, so your post is helping me make that decision.

Love my SS single bowl apron sink. I have no problems with scratching on the outside, but the inside is a mass of scratches, and there is a small dent where one of my daughters dropped an iron skillet. I've read that SS sinks can be refinished by mechanical polishing, but I know mine would be back in the same shape in short order.

I'm only 5'7", but if I do a lot of dishes by hand I get back twinges, so I use something to raise the wash pan/vessel which you'll need anyway with a single bowl. I use a Pampered Chef cooling rack, which folds up to fit in my sheet pan cabinet. I like that it does double duty, and you can also drain clean dishes and silverware on it. This pic shows two, stacked.

Stainless may scratch, but it's very easy to refinish, even by a DIYer.

Do you wear belt buckles or jeans with metal buttons/snaps? Those are the things that scratch them up the most. My brother-in-law has the most interesting scratch pattern on the front of his SS apron sink -- two distinct marks, the lower set from his wife and the upper set from him. They can't argue over who does more dishes, because her scratch area is far bigger than his!