Well, they were moaning at the amount of work...
I have not done it (nor will I) but based on what I have read on the forum and in the factory manual, it is a LOT of work.
When mentioned, it was an audible groan., and the fact that folks that do their own checks often find something out of spec and they say they have never seen a valve out of spec... just makes you wonder if they are doing the work properly and just pulling and looking and throwing it all back together asap.
Good points. Of course, I often wonder if any work is really done properly by shops. I tend to be like you, not very trusting.
I will point out that (based on what I have read/seen/heard) most have not found anything out of spec when checked at the recommended USA interval. Even when it is far past the interval, most find none out of spec. I don't have any hard data, though (one thread started a poll, but it wasn't well worded and sample size wasn't great) . That isn't to say people don't EVER find anything out of spec, or at the edge of just being in spec at the USA interval. It is a kind of gamble in which the odds appear to support waiting longer. If it were easy to do, it wouldn't be a big deal.
One thing to consider- magically, the manuals for non-USA/CDN bikes call for a valve check at 26K miles, not 15K. And those bikes have identical heads, valves, springs, pistons, cams, seats, blocks, etc, etc. So why is it that USA/CDN bikes should be checked at 15K and the same bike sold outside that area are 26K? At a minimum, that would tend to imply 26K is safe, even based on Kawasaki's own recommendations.
There are no easy answers on this topic. (Just the same questions hashed over and over in similar threads
)