Not sure how many of you worked on older engines. Our 51 Chev did not have an oil pump for bearing lube. It had dippers on the ends of the bearing caps that dipped into the oil to feed the crank. No bearing halves - the Babbitt was poured directly onto the caps and rods. My 1928 Case CC out front has no oil to the top end. There's a grease zerk on the rocker shaft and you grease it daily - that's all the rocker arms get.
I'm not saying you don't need oil. I'm not saying Brad didn't shorten the life of his engine. However, I have too much engineering experience with engines this size. This is far from the first one I have heard this type experience. Some have been refilled, cranked up, and go of ages. Some are refilled, cranked up, and sound like rocks tumbling in a cement mixer. This engine sounds like the former. Will love to hear a year from now how it is still going.
One other thing - as engineering manager more than once in my career I had someone from the shop call and tell me the accidentally started an engine with no oil. What should they do. My answer was always scrap it out - not going to have our mistake end up as a customers problem in any way. Not often, but lucky tech schools in our area got the engines for their class work. Nobody ever gave me feedback on how they looked internally. We never salvaged a bit - the entire engine (less accessories we installed) got donated.