I've just changed my bearings after five years. My axle looks fine. Only thing is, the "drifting" required to get the bearings off made the ends of the axle fatter so I had to file them back to round again.
Also, I proudly finished it all, then looked in the parts container and saw…. the circlip that I had forgotten to replace! doh.
Does it really matter? I had to hit the bearing quite hard to get it into the freewheel body, and it's got that spacer and the other bearing to hold it in. If I take it all apart again now I'll probably have to change the axle too, as more hitting will only make it go a funny shape again.