Ok....Thanks guys. After 20 years of cleaning off the grease, then relubeing I have never experienced what I would consider "premature" chain wear or any rusting (granted most chains have been DuraAce nickel plated). By the way, I have always used Brake Parts Cleaner from the autoparts store to degrease, works great!

I'll side on the "clean off that gunk" end of this argument.....I'm off to the garage to degrease my new DuraAce 10speed chain...