I have many revolvers, most of them are Smith & Wesson. Of all my S&W revolvers, only two of them came to me *NEW* in box. Produced in 1988 and 1989 respectively, they are a 17-6 and a 686-3.
Neither of these has ever had the sideplate off since they put it in place in Springfield. And neither of these has ever had any oil, grease, lube, solvent or schmegma willingly poured, shot, dripped, sprayed or otherwise directed inside of them. Ever.
Each has seen many thousands of rounds. I did not keep round counts back in the day, something I do keep track of these days. I can only estimate at this point... the 686 likely has north of 6k, more than half of which has been .38 Special. The Model 17 typically got fed one or two bricks each weekend when I was in my formative years. I can't imagine it has any less than 10k through it.
I don't lube the guts of any of my revolvers, but those two in particular I am dead sure certain have never, ever been lubed.