I believe the story of the shell and the pearl also comes to play.
That little hole has to lube the whole thing so I guess there will be metal contact anyway because of the power generated and those rods want to go in all directions but up and down. So you want to keep the margins tight and also have a strong oil film. Something has to give, maybe just replace them on a track car?
Are there 'better' bearings that last longer and are good to the crank? I'm beating mine all day now, with regular oil.
Can we proof somehow what would be the best brand of oil and bearing? It is about the most important thing in the engine I suppose.
That is a bearing with 120k on it, had decent oil changes, but it was driven hard by some stupid 'driver license owner'
p.s. I am a firm believer in additives like zinc, graphite or MoS2 (Molybdenum disulfide)