If running it at 5,500 would affect the engine, mine would have blown a long time ago.
I don't think that the intake was affected. You caught it before the lobe disappeared and the pushrod dropped and all of that bad stuff that could have happened didn't.
I know this wasn't the cause, but back in the 80's and early 90's when I running the Cadillac shop, we had the infamous HT4100, which ironically is now the best engine that they ever made in it's Northstar version.
But I digress. The intake manifold never sealed properly on those cars and coolant (anti-freeze) would begin to leak into the oil and with anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 miles, one or two lobes would be gone on the cam.
Why the cam and not the mains? The leak from the coolant passages between the head and intake gasket went right down into the valley where the camshaft sits in the middle of a V-8 engine. It would dilute the oil and probably got directly on the cam and led to their early demise.
From 83 through 90, I had two guys who would just R&R engines while three others rebuilt them. We had a 24 hour turn around on an engine swap. We found a machine shop that would install cam bearings, thereby saving the aluminum blocks and saving GM big $$$$.