[pothole]

Well, there are a fair few early 2.5s knocking around with north of 200k miles on the factory bearing. In that context, not sure how much it matters whether the bearing was "on its way" - all engines are "on their way", quite frankly.

I'd say if you're in there doing a clutch and can afford to get the bearing done without much financial pain, do it. If you're already on a really tight budget and your car has 100k-plus, I don't think you need to feel bad about deciding it's an expense you can't afford.