Our many cast iron skillets are in great shape, but at various times they have all been more or less abused, but I never follow the formal seasoning process.
If one gets over-heated or left wet and rusts a bit, I just scrub and scrape as necessary to get it smooth, then put some oil on it and start using it correctly again until it slowly builds up to a nice dark surface again.
I find the edge of a metal spatula makes a great scraper tool, and a regular scruber pad. I don’t worry about it if I go down to bare metal in a few spots.. they always get “seasoned” by using them.
Obviously, you don’t want to over-heat them or let them rust, but accidents happen - and I’ve never bothered to do the whole bake-in-the-oven thing.
Yeah, I mostly season all of my cast iron by cooking in it, too. There have been a few times I’ve had to do a bit more, but I just get the pan really hot on the stovetop and use a little oil on a paper towel. Wipe a thin coat on, let it smoke, repeat until you get tired of it. I don’t worry about seasoning the outside.