Needless IMS replacement?

[JFP in PA]

One point everyone seems to overlook is that while we have changed a lot of these bearings, with vehicle mileage ranging from less than 10K to well over 100K, we are yet to remove one that still had the factory grease in it. This means that all of the bearings were at least in the first stage of failure, or more. Perhaps the bearings were still tight and turned without obvious problems, but with the grease gone, it is only a matter of time; they were all “on the way”.............

[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.