Just playing CD-R based games will not make you laser safe....
The PS2 is just like anything else, the more you use it, the quicker it will wear out.....
My personal opinion is to stay with 1:1 copies and avoid rips....( BUT thats just my opinion
)
The other thing that is going to KILL your laser is the NEO chip... The NEO line of chips sends too much voltage to the laser and thus will burn it out...(That is probably why the capacitor was installed) The capacitor will help prolong the lasers life BUT it will still burn it out eventually....