Indeed - just like car odometers. Mind you, with many things, if it's factory testing one is talking about, they quite often 'reset to zero' after the testing. It's subsequent (post-factory) testing (just like the 'delivery miles' of a car) that most often leads to the 'non-zero' readings when one first sees them.
That sounds very credible.
I don't know whether there was ever any truth in the suggestion, but I was brought up to believe that when they initially 'measured' (well, more like 'estimated') the height of Everest they got an answer of exactly 29,000 feet - but that, since that looked 'too round' for anyone to regard it as credible as an accurate measurement, they added on a little, and told the world that it was 29,028 feet!
Kind Regards, John