My 1996 Intruder 800 went 135,000 miles with zero mechanical or electrical problems. My current one had 55,000 trouble free miles on it whaen I parked it in favor of a harley. My girlfriend's Intruder 1400 has 45,000 trouble free miles on it. By buddy has 102,000 on his 1500 LC, another has 75,000 on his.
So, in my personal experience, which includes roughly 800,000 miles on two wheels in the last 25 years, this is not at all correct. So either your friend is full of BS, or you are trolling.