Load Cycle Count and Hard Drive Life

When I heard about issues with another platforms default power-management settings burning the life out of notebook hardrives, I decided it would be wise to check how my own MacBook Pro was doing. I installed smartctl utilities via Darwin ports and started keeping track to my drive status.
I was shocked to find that the LoadCycleCount as reported by my machine's SMART subsystem was over 500,000 of an expected 600,000 cycles in a harddrive typical life on a system that was just 18 months old of just typical use. Since then I've monitored things and haven't been able to get it to slow down - so that it's now crossed 613,000 after 8032 power-on hours and the macbook is still running - not making any weird drive noises either.
I've been making weekly backups now - but I'd still rather have a planned replacement than get caught in the middle with a downed system. Frankly, I'm bothered by how fast this drive's life has been "used up" by the default settings of OSX. Have people ever gotten a pro-active replacement approve by applecare - I have the extended warranty on my machine - but don't want to void my warranty on the whole machine just to fix this harddrive issue.

1. Yes.
2. I have used 254 for years on my HP.  I don't run for extended periods on batteries, and I hate spin down / spin up delays.  I have never had a problem and always use it sitting on my lap, often being set down on and picked up from a desk.  I would not worry about it.

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    For reference, Hitachi's note on the subject
    http://tinyurl.com/mcx6t
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