Yes, throat erosion will cause the death of accuracy, and overbore cartridges accelerate the process. I have a friend who has worn out a few barrels on his 338WM and now his 416Rigby. Until he came along, I'd only every heard of benchrest shooters replacing barrels relatively frequently. My friend does shoot a lot BTW.

I suspect otherwise that neglect or (mechanical) damage by poor cleaning procedures would cause the demise of many hunting rifle barrels.