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Having now given up on Goldtec, I've dismantled the wheel and had a really good look at it. It's caused by galvanic corrosion between the s/s spokes and the alloy shell. On the LHS, the outside spokes have really eaten into the shell, spalling off the black coating, and it was about to fall apart in several places. On the RHS, the oil spatter has protected it so (after wiping off the sludge) there is barely any corrosion, the coating is largely intact, and the spokes haven't made much of an impression on the flange at all.
No-one now makes a 135mm hub with 36 holes and a wide enough chainline for an MTB, so I'm going to have to fit something different or buy a 32h rim and new spokes :-(
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Tangential lacing is no guarantee against cracked flanges, unfortunately, although radial lacing is far worse.
If you're going to lace radially without a maker's guarantee, you need a forged hub shell and the maximum amount of metal between the spokes. This means a 28 hole hub is better than a 36 hole hub for this particular purpose, and l/f hubs are better than s/f. I would say you are reasonably safe with a Shimano hub, since these are forged (at least the reasonable quality ones are).
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After 3 years, that is. Anyone had any luck? I'd expect a hub shell to last indefinitely, let alone an eighty quid one, and yes, it was spoked x3.
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Got a reply from BETD (wow!). No word on the alloy ones, but the stainless steel ones are available for £14, which is a bit steep IMO.
I understand it's a hollow axle, so I'm tempted to just use a skewer.
On some hubs, like the Fuji one I've just done, the bearings really don't want to come out because tolerances are tight and/or they've been there for a long time and a bit of corrosion has made them stick. Heating up the hub makes it a lot easier - about 120 deg C in an oven will make the hub shell expand a lot more than the steel bearing race and relax the fit somewhat. My hub happened to be out of the wheel for a rebuild, but you could heat one up with a hairdryer or heat gun.