To me, bore geometry and surface finish are way more important than what your friend is saying. I personally don't like to get the piston hanging out the bottom of the bore until you can see the oil ring, but if the ring belt isn't abhorrent and everything else is correct, your combo shouldn't be an issue.

I think most guys are still running too much piston to wall clearance. I've seen stuff come through the shop that was on it's first freshen and it would need to be taken to the next over to save it. Sometimes, you could coat the Pistons and save them for one rebuild.

Now, with the Line2line coating, you can save more stuff that's too loose. The L2L coating is a very good product. I've only seen it used once, but the results were better than expected.