Hydraulic lifter preload...who really checks this?

Kern Dog said
My first Mopar build was a 1978 440 in 2001.
I followed the Mopar Muscle Q & A advice of "Dick Landy" and decked the block .010 and the heads .050. The pistons were stock, the heads were iron. I did use different valve springs but with stock rocker arms and pushrods.
There was no checking or lifter preload with the MP 280/474 cam. I ran the dude pretty hard and and had no problems with it. I later put the engine in another car that I sold. I built another 440, this time bored .030 over with the MP 284/484 cam and Edelbrock heads. Again, no checking of lifter preload and stock rocker arms and pushrods and again, no issues.
That engine split a rod so I built a 440/493.
.030 over, 4.15 stroke crank, pistons .017 in the hole with HD repro stock stamped steel rocker arms and stock pushrods, MP 292/509 cam, new valve springs but once again, no attention to lifter preload and no bad results from it.
Am I just lucky or is there so much of a range of tolerance that I was going to be fine no matter what I did?
I switched to a solid lifter cam later and went with an adjustable valvetrain.
I'm not one to ignore good advice or practices on engine builds but if you don't know , AND if there have been no ill effects to it, the best that you can do is learn from it.

The factory designed these as reliable passenger car transportation. They weren't designed to have adjustable preload. The lifter successfully took up the differences in tolerances from one engine to the next.

Those same lifters are more than capable of doing the same thing with a bigger cam and a performance build. The factory rockers are much more stout than most people give credit for. But there's no way to adjust preload except with custom push-rods.

It really ultimately depends on what you're wanting to accomplish with the build and what your tolerance for risk is. Most of the time the factory stuff works with fairly mild cams. Sometimes it might not. Roll the dice and send it!