Can extensive creating, copying and erasing files eventually ruin a HDD?
Everything eventually wears out, it's just a matter of time and a fact of life.  Since it's an unknown as to explicitly why your HDD failed it can only be said that normal/excessive usage leads to normal/excessive wear and tear which does contribute to the eventual failure.  The only thing you can do about it is to ensure that you always maintain proper and current backups so in the event it fails you do not loose important files.