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b) rare
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The rarity of this exact situation is irrelevant; making solid reads to analyze a situation correctly so we can make thin value bets, good folds or brilliant call downs is the skill to be developed here.
Link.
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Rarity is relevent in that your decisions make a very small practical impact on your bankroll. However, a psychological devastation like folding a winner in a huge pot may linger with a player for quite a while and have a real impact on his decision making.
For example, the OP has now made this fold only twice, but both times he was wrong! What kind of effect does that have on his confidence?
I basically agree that we should strive to play perfectly. Recognizing that we are not machines and making the occasional safe play in a spot that is close anyways seems like a perfectly reasonable move to me.
Think of it as equivalent to folding a marginal hand when you know you don't play well postflop. You're making a "mistake", but given your own fallibility, it's the right play.
-Eric
edit: I see now that you are actually arguing that this case is not rare, in that you'll be faced with similar situations frequently. Well, I think the occurrence of a big made hand + a huge draw is in fact extremely rare, and it's not even clear that it's the right play here (0 for 2 so far).