I have never and would never buy a modded car as it will most likely have been driven hard, otherwise what is the point of modding it. That is what any business buying it would think as well. Common knowledge is that modifications de value any car quite considerably sadly.
I get what you are saying but I think some people change parts just for the visual benefit. For instance, does changing the standard wheels mean the car will be driven hard? Does specifying the 19 OEM wheels mean the car will be driven hard? No evidence to suggest either would be true.
Fairly sure Watts had a number of mods including a short shifter but from his forum posts, I imagine it was driven fairly normally.
Have to agree with Jim too.
I actually see it the other way round tbh. I have seen so many highly modded cars (my own included) that just literally tootle round with the odd step down on the motorway etc but not driven hard, warmed up properly before they do drive them hard even and so on. A lot of those highly modded cars will just end up at shows on stands driven very carefully to not bin off their pride and joy and be left with nothing to show for it.
On the other hand I know a tonne of people who lease/pcp their cars and literally gun it from cold and genuinely don't care once ounce about the car. Drive them even harder than I do my own, take them through the local scratch and swirl place to clean them and treat the car like crap. My own brother included. I dread to think of the poor sods that will end up buying some of the cars he's 'owned' over the years (Merc AMG's, a couple of X5 M50d's, even run of the mill stuff too).
