341 hemi in 1970 dart
If it was just one , I'd go " hmmmmmm" , if I had built them all , I'd go " aw , **** ". But it was on three of them.
3 journals or 3 crankshafts?
Either way, that's nothing to base a comment that the early crankshafts were soft. I have owned nearly 30 early hemi's, including half a dozen each of the early Dodge's and DeSoto's. None have any issues with crank journals like you mentioned. NONE. Not that half a dozen DeSoto crankshafts is enough to say none of them had issues either. But 3 is a pretty small number to be spouting off about.
The oiling did suck, but that had a lot less to do with the oiling system itself and more to do with the old paraffin based oils. After a little neglect all the passages would plug up with sludge, and starve the oiling system. That would cause bearing issues, but not because the cranks were soft.
I also have 331's, 354's, and 392's. The forging quality of all of them is pretty much equivalent. The 392's were not some huge advance in the design of the early hemi's. The best flowing factory heads came off the '55 331. As far as the blocks, they're pretty much identical from '54 on up for the Chryslers, only the deck height, bore, and stroke changed. 331's get a bad rap from the '51-53 version with the extended bell and ultra low compression. The '55 331 was pretty much everything any of the 354's or 392's that followed it were, just a smaller bore and stroke. The '51-'53 cranks had a little bit longer snout on them, and a slightly different look. But from '54 up I have to check casting #'s or measure, they look pretty much the same.
But for that matter, the early '51-53 331's are formidable engines if you raise the compression and change to the later heads. The extended bell is easy enough to deal with if you run a 4 speed, and if you add a hydraulic throw out bearing its even easier. Which is why I have 7 of them. Folks seem to think they're somehow inferior than the later engines, so they sell cheap. :D
Personally, I'd rather build two 54/55 331's than a 392. And for the price of the 392's, you pretty much can.