That's great news.
Things like the brake pivot pin which is kind of a PITA to have to mess with are usually lubricated or taken care of.
The rider, having never known how good the brakes should work usually just assumes, "yup. The brakes need a real hard pull on them to get them to work but after all, these are those old style drum brakes that never really work well."
I've got a feeling that when you ride your bike the next time your going to be pleasantly surprised.
No, they won't be as good as a good set of disk brakes but usually they are more than enough unless they get wet.