I bought my 40ve back in 1999.
Bought new from a trusted shop so I know it had not been altered in any way.
The pistol does not have the loaded chamber indicator cutout in the barrel hood and the sear block only has the one sear spring but the pins in the block are staked in so I don't think that the staking of the pins is anything new.
I installed the Apex kit ( still using the OEM striker spring) some time ago after removing the pigtail spring and polishing every moving part that I could get to and put on a Tru-Glo front sight.

Got it down to 6-6.5 lb. pull but after around about 150 rounds still had a bit of gritiness.
I noticed the the sides of the striker that ride in the slot in the slide had some wear marks so I used a very fine burnishing tool to smooth out the sides of slot. I could feel some roughness there but burnishing took care of that.
Pull is now 6lbs each and every time on a Lyman scale and smooth as silk.
This pistol is now a real keeper.

By the way, I managed to get a new sear block assy. from Midway a couple of weeks ago just as a backup.
It is a true S&W part and does not have the staked pins but does have the two sear springs and no ejector.