+1 on that. there is a nervous quotient about some drums that get in the way of playing them and enjoying them. put em on a pedestal and send pictures .drums after all are a musical instrument and some battle scars are expected and in some cases , add character to them.
when it comes to alterations; I accept those only in the case of duress. drilled holes are usually put there by people that are challenged in more ways than one , usually evident by the quality of workmanship and ducttaping , that the drum victims have sustained=====kind of like bullet holes and bandages.
i like originality if possible and if a repair is attempted against great odds, in an attempt to clean up a mess; then whatever has been done, is close to new , to me.
if I can relate this to violins a little; because violins and drums are cousins, albeit, gated residence and trailer park cousins.
because of the nature of the construction of violins and their relative fragility, most violins over the course of their usefull lives(up to 450 years and counting) sustain cracks, usually in the belly( top) or back and sometimes the ribs. cracks in the belly and back , seriously damage the vibration of those key elements in the soundbox and render the value of the instrument , almost useless as a playing instrument.if those cracks are expertly repaired , they affect the value of the instrument very little. additionally, ALL violins, usefull for non baroque music, made prior to approx. 1800 have had serious alterations to the neck and neck bracing area of the instrument and are very different from their origins. this includes for example, all Stradivari . no existing Stradivari remains that has not been seriously altered from it's original construction and they all sound completely different today, than they did when first made, so qualified alterations of a musical instrument, need not be a death-knell to it's value. that said; if an unaltered genuine baroque Stradivari or Guernari or the like were to all of a sudden show up, it might well become the most valuable musical instrument in existence----especially if it had an original bridge,tailpiece, fingerboard and strings( not sure if that is possible).