Have seen instances where lifter bores had scratches or roughness. Couple of passes with some emory on a cartrige roll or brake cylinder hone cleaned it up. Then put some
oil on the lifter to be sure it turns freely.
I like your idea of gaving a cam ground with a little more curve on it to insure the lifters rotate if block has a failure history because of this.
If using stiff springs, break the engine in with just the outer springs installed.
Something else I just tried on this engine was to have the springs polymer coated with an
oil retentive coating to make them operate cooler, and last longer.