My Brooks was comfortable right out of the box and it's still comfortable today.
I use a product called Sno-Seal on it when I remember to try to keep it water resistant. On days when I'm riding in the rain I use a cover or a plastic bag to try to keep it dry.
A couple of years ago it got seriously soaked by 4 days worth of rain on a 5 day tour. It was so wet I think I could have rung water out of it. When I got back home I left it to dry out in the garage without forcing the issue with hair driers or heat guns or things like that. It was fine after it dried. I had to retension it a bit to take up some of the slack from stretching but getting it wet did not seriously damage it at all.
In my opinion pro riders don't ride them because thy're heavy.
If anything happens to this saddle I'll replace it with another Brooks.