I'm quite nostalgic for the smell of old science labs but I'm not sure I'd want to have a piece in my kitchen with the chemicals that have been spilled on it over the decades.
Maybe that's the incentive you need to maintain your barrier layer properly.
This make me think of whoever it was who used to reoil their ex chemistry lab worktop annually.
All I could think is how the fuck do you have time to do this random task?!