I've run them flaked, broken all that. Sometimes we over think it. Keep your idle oil pressure at 30 pounds hot or more and you'll save yourself a bunch of headaches.
And I have raced on .005-006" of cam bearing clearance to the cam journals when I did not have a set handy, but for the low cost and effort, why not just get them freshened up? It'll just make things better for the long run.
