On a mild street machine, are roller lifters worthwhile, even from the standpoint of insurance against wiping a cam lobe?

Reading all this about folks wiping cams worries me...

Another issue of depends on what you want to do, how agressive the cam is and how well matched the valvetrain is.

I managed to score a cast core hyd. roller cam with minimal running time - culprit was determined to be too too much, no make that way too much spring pressure.

It's a CC 270H cam, CC matched springs, 9:1 CR
Stock lifters, rockers and push rods at this point... 215 heads - see the signature for the rest.

Main thing I'm wondering is if the price is right, is it worth my while to go roller, or don't sweat it. Seems like the ugly flat lobe monster rears it's head a little too often...

I haven't started that many fresh engines, maybe 8 or 9, all with flat tappet cams. All but two much more radical than your cam. No flat lobes so far. If you pre-oil properly lube the lobes with EP moly and do a proper breakin, you shouldn't have any problems. Untold millions of engines have FT cams and run for years and years.