Jordan,
Yeah could be that, steam cleaning bearings under load certainly isn't good for them.
This sled had about 1200 miles on it when I bought it (cheap), and I wouldn't say it was looked after. I pulled the hood off to find it wasn't seated right, the main plenum wasn't sealed, and it still had the crap '18 upper intake setup with huge gaps. Before I rode it I fully sealed the hood, updated the upper intake to the '19+ style, and replaced the main rubber seal (then greased the crap out of it). Premixed fuel at about 100:1. Airbox was dry last season but I'm sure the bearings had already had a hard life. The pistons visually looked pretty good but the skirts were pretty much collapsed to the wear limit.
I had injector issues end of the year last season, sled was pretty weak because of that. First ride this season had fresh injectors (properly programmed) with a new harness, and it ran hard. I wonder if that didn't finish off the crank during that last long hard pull. Mag rod bearing was squared, PTO rod rollers were blue, other bearings look great. No codes and oil pump functions.
Anyway, $100 is cheap extra insurance. I've got one ordered, thanks for the tip.