Hydraulic lifter preload...who really checks this?

At the risk of getting Big red-Xed again;
I'll tell you what I did on my engine;
ie the engine was built in 1999, and now has over 100,000 miles on it. and it went 93 in the Eighth with a 230/237/110 cam.
Now, this is on an 11/1, 360, pulling a manual trans. The KB107s were last set to .007 pop-up and I use the 039 gasket for a Squish of .032.
After checking the rocker arm sweep, I installed custom-fit pushrods under adjustable alloy rocker arms set to 1/4 turn preload.
After break-in, it was found to be a little noisy, so I reset it to 1/2 turn, and besides an occasional adjustment since 1999, that's where it has stayed.
You might ask, why so little preload?
Well, when I missed a shift once, I looked at the tach and saw the needle coming down across the face of 8000 rpm. the Hughes lifters that I am using have a plunger travel of .208 IIRC. Going thru 1.6 arms, that is a gross of .333 at the valve. which is greater than my piston to valve clearance. Had my lifters pumped up on that day, I'd had to rebuild my top end, at least.
As it was, I allowed the rpm to come down slowly, and it idled perfectly! surprise surprise.
Ok sure, I could have, during the build, cut my eyebrows deeper for more PV clearance, but why bother? I already have more than I need if the lifters don't pump up, so the simple solution was just to run less preload

The point is this, if you don't check things, you cannot know what will happen, when things go wrong.

BTW
I fixed my shifter and installed a rev-limiter, but, I haven't ever missed another shift since 2004. My rev limiter is a cheap dial-type. Most of the time, I use it for a cruise control. I just get the car up to speed, dial the limiter until the engine misses, then give back a hair. Badaboom. I have never received a speeding ticket with this system.