Absolutely. I own a LOT of firearms and if I was on my belly in the mud or sand and needed reliability it would be the SKS without a doubt. I like stripper feed weapons, just as fast as a detachable but you can go a long ways before you have to do any refilling. And you can carry a lot more rounds if need be because strippers are lighter than mags.
A memory I have of the SKS was during a foreign weapons training event. The instructor took an SKS, dropped it in a mud puddle, drove through the mud puddle with his M151 jeep (I do not know if he actually drove over it). Pulled the weapon out of the mud, cleared it, fresh ammo and it fired perfectly. The point with that training was that’s all Charlie had to work with. The Russians designed their weapons to run in the dirt and keep on working.
Confession time: I have had my SKS for 25 years and never, ever cleaned it once. Oiled it, yes, but to actually dissemble or run a brush down the barrel, never.
Of course I cannot do this with my higher grade closer tolerance weapons, especially semi auto pistols.