Every (well, ok, most) offroader knows this. If you increase the weight/size of the wheels, you have to beef up the axles and other driveline parts to handle the strain.
Where the OP falls down, is in assuming that those larger rims increase the overall diameter of the wheel. There are idiots who run cartoonishly-large wheels on passenger cars, and yes, there will be an increased rate of failure in driveline parts as a result, but the number of people who do that is extremely small. If you run correspondingly-lower profile tires so you maintain the same (or very nearly the same) diameter, then the effect is negligible. At worst, you might be increasing rotating mass very slightly, which could add a little strain.
The real killers are deeply-offset wheels (stick way out past the fenders) which destroy wheelbearings, and the ultra-low profile tires which beat up your suspension.
It seems to me that you introduce a different tradeoff--you get better handling, but you work the suspension harder because there's less give in the low-profile tire walls.