My grandfather's pens (not Japanese) were also clogged, and his dip nibs dirty. Also they look they they were thoroughly chewed on (by dog or human I don't know), but that's besides the point...
The problem at issue is that when someone passes away or becomes senile, if no one else cares about their pens they are generally in the state in which they were last used. During the person's lifetime they were probably well serviced and cleaned diligently by the original owner.
I think in the case of people who are massive collectors we'll obviously see more pens of yesteryear in perfect condition, perhaps only inked once or twice with a gentle dye based ink
Naturally there's other ways this could have happened, someone receiving a fountain pen who just didn't know what ink to use and didn't have internet to find out / didn't think there could be a wrong ink to use, but I think I've painted a pretty realistic scenario.
I'm really curious about vintage pens, but I'm not sure I want to buy all the tools needed to fix them up. I'm sure there's some real bargains out there.
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