Your buddy is off track.

1) The lube deal. Fouling is fouling - think about what is happening - the bullet runs through the bore, maybe it leaves a little lube behind, and the flash front and powder follows it, settling a happy bath of powder into the bore. The next shot lays lube on top, powder follows... Fouling is fouling.

Then think about your own experience - if the lube prevented any fouling of the bore, cleaning would go a lot faster with 22LR's than it does in real life. Lubed or not, you see powder residue and lead fouling EVERY TIME, and copper fouling if you use plated bullets. If the lube prevented fouling, that wouldn't happen - you'd push one solvent patch through the bore, push out the lube, and be done. That ain't how it's ever gone for me when I clean one, maybe other guys have different experiences.

2) Shooting the entire lot vs. Zero drift. There is some merit to this, but guys have misconstrued a little bit of science into a bad science wive's tale. There do tend to be variations in lot to lot, but in practice, it's hokum. To avoid inconsistency from one string to the next, match rimfire shooters buy huge lots of ammo, then sort them by headspace and/or weight, and yes, we do try to minimize adjustments within a given lot, but a guy has to clean his rifle if he expects to hit the X-ring. EVERY MATCH TYPE ALLOWS SIGHTERS!!! Most targets designed for smallbore matches even have sighting targets to allow the shooter to check sights even during the string or before the scored firing portion of the course of fire. (i.e. the A-17 has 11 targets, one for sighting, 10 for scoring, the A-32 has 12 targets, 2 for sighting, 10 for scoring). Hunters have the same luxury, whether they want to be lazy and not clean because they don't want to take a fouling shot or check the sights, or they just want to be lazy and not clean, that doesn't change the fact that the rifle will shoot better after being cleaned plus 1-10 fouling shots than it will after 490 fouling shots between cleanings...

Beyond that - the cold bore "flyer" is typically inconsequential in smallbore hunting application. A good rifle doesn't suddenly drift an inch at 25-50yrds just because the bore is clean. It might shoot a little high, or a little out, but a miss by a 1/4" still kills a bunny.

I may not clean my rifles after every outing, and I might have rifles go all season before cleaning, but I would absolutely NOT recommend that (do as I say, not as I do). There's nothing to be harmed by cleaning the rifle.

Now, on the other hand, a lot of dad's and grandpa's told their sons they don't have to clean their 22's because they're lazy and didn't want to, or because they think the kid will damage the bore more by excessive/repetitive cleaning with a brush than they would shooting it, OR because their dad or grandpa told them the same thing for either reason... Either way, the world used to be flat, but we know better these days.