I have owned several revolvers with close barrel to cylinder tolerances that would gum up in a couple hundred rounds. It’s a concern if one doesn’t keep the cylinder face squeaky clean, for sure. Those tools require a ton of maintenance, relatively speaking, true. Most of my revolvers get a little sluggish after a good weekend class—if time permits, I like to clean class guns at the end of each day. OMMV, of course.
As to the pocket carry, for sure, lint can stack up. Same with ankle carry and dust and crud. No less a luminary than @
Mas ayoob has written a fair amount on this, noting that the snubs are traditionally *more* forgiving than the small autos that would also be eligible for those roles, size-wise. Crud and lint is part and parcel of those types of deeper carry, and a savvy practitioner will take this into account in terms of preventative maintenance.
Somewhat tangential, but some good number of decades ago, Chuck Taylor wrote up a series of torture tests he did on the semi-autos of the day. He also included an S&W M27–which passed all the tests, IIRC. Hopefully someone here can dig up the article in the old wayback machine, as it was interesting reading.