Sure, I change out out and sell and buy scopes all the time. Never seen or heard of the problems you are worrying about. Neither has my gunsmith.
+1
Never saw a ring that was rusted where it contacted the scope and i've removed a few hundred scopes. i've had people bring me a couple dozen rifles that had the scopes ruined from mis-aligned rings. Prior to lapping, i check the scope rings very carefully with the alignment bars: If the rings are going to require a lot of lapping they go back to the vendor.
Am not a gunsmith but i do scope a lot of rifles and sight them in. i will not install a scope without first lapping the rings.