1999 CRV I bought for my daughter in 2002 is at 280,000 miles and has not yet needed a valve job. SIL is a minimum maintenance guy, so it probably has not gotten a valve lash adjustment, nor replaced the timing belt since I did that for them at about 90,000 miles.
I had a couple of German cars (BMW, Audi) that needed lash adjustments at each oil change, learned to do it myself). Was spending $200 for each 3000 mile service in 1972, when my salary was less than $400 a month (military).