Your plumber is probably making a good choice. Valves that don’t get exercised regularly can be all but guaranteed to be a pain in the ass when you need them to work.

We have a calendar reminder to exercise the valves in our house yearly, and the fact that they’re easy to get at helps make sure it’s a quick job, not a tedious one.

Not a plumber, but have lived in enough old houses with iffy valves to have been bitten a few times.