My Corvette and Camaro have this feature. It's a blast to utilize! I had no idea GM incorporated it on the trucks. My engines are the LT1 variant making 455/455.
Glad you're enjoying your new truck. Life is full enough of troubles and sometimes it's the small things that really help level it out.
He doesn't keep his trucks long enough for this to pose a problem. As a lifelong GM owner I am very familiar with this issue. If it's gonna happen, lifter failure usually starts around the 100,000 mile mark. Some earlier depending on driving habits. I made it to 130,000 on my Pontiac G8 GT before it went out. A-Jay appears to be the type to enjoy his rides, yet not abuse them. I'm sure this truck will be long traded before the dreaded lifter failure issue sticks its ugly head up.
I use the Range device that plugs into the OBD plug to "delete" the 4 cylinder mode. Seems to make a difference as I've not had any issues as of yet.