I don't see many vintage Schwinn bikes here in Canuckistan as they are uncommon in the land of CCM and Raleigh... first Varsity I saw was just a frame and fork and think my ongoing back problems stem from picking it up.
It was a different age... there have always been folks trying to build the lightest and fastest and Schwinn did their share of that but they also made bikes that, although they were tank like, were made to survive a lifetime of hard use.
Some look on one piece cranks as a poor piece of kit but one has to think that these were designed to be serviced with regular tools whereas all other cranks need specialized tools to be serviced.