Thanks for all the input. I can see that originality is not as big a deal as I thought it was. I especially liked the comment about an old original Corvette vs an old original K-car. Certainly some of the bikes I own are more K-car than Corvette. I have one or two old road bikes that I'm going to maintain as original because I like them that way. One of them is the Fuji Monterey below. Not exactly a high value, collectible, but it's a creampuff and those chrome steel wheels are polished to a point where you can shave in them.
But I'm not going to sweat making changes to other bikes. Thanks again.