Well said, I totally agree with this.
I trust a flight proven battery more than a new one. As
@FredA said, the type of altimeter, wait time on the pad, recovery time until it's turned off, all affects the battery life. I've had some that lasted 3 seasons, some only one, and a couple that hung in a tree for 5 days and were still beeping the altitude when the rocket was finally recovered but couldn't be flown again.
I install them with the contacts down so thrust moves any internals toward the top of the battery. I've only had flights a little over 80G, but the batteries worked fine. I don't know if that really makes any difference or not, it's just the way I mount them.
I lost one rocket from what I suspect was a broken internal connection in the old style Duracell 9V with the 6 AAAA internal cells. It had been in a rocket where the main failed to deploy and the rocket came down on drogue only. It was installed in another rocket and flown. The boot up, beep sequence, etc. all worked perfectly, and was beeping continuity for both matches when left on the pad. Neither match fired and there was no data stored for the flight. I suspect the thrust caused a broken, but touching internal contact in the battery, to open and reset the altimeter during flight. I could be wrong about the battery causing the issue, but now, I replace the batteries when the altimeter reported voltage goes below 8.9V (up to +20 flights and 3 years) or if there is some recovery anomaly that causes a hard impact on landing. That is also when I started making sure the contacts are installed downward. YMMV.