That's the most extreme "old wives tale" I've heard about solid cams. Even the old stock engines ran for yrs. sometimes without setting the valves. And today's tight lash cams don't require as much maint. as the older cams.
I'm running a Racer Brown solid in my 408 and so far have only had to set it once a year. I don't race it at the track much but I drive it pretty hard 2000-2500 miles per yr. I'm out in the country so I'm lucky to have a few decent places to open it up and it see's the upper 5000's quite often.
Another thing I get the feeling of is how everyone makes such a big deal about setting valves. It's not like were rebuilding a transmission. I can do mine in about 1 hr.