There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the Bongo appeared with its outrageous painted neck. I'm sure I'd never had a bass with a painted neck before, but the Bongo was too...something, and the first time I saw one, I was in.
The oldest Bongo I have is my Candy Red 5H and it was my main bass immediately upon arrival in 2005. It's been through the wars and has the scrapes to prove it. For various reasons, none of them good, I retired it a few years ago. So that didn't work out. I brought it back out and have used it constantly for the last 4-5 years.
The painted neck is still in great shape. Maybe a little less shiny than it used to be, but so am I. I'm not worried about wear. If it DOES someday start to show wood, I'll sand it down, oil/wax it and keep on playing it.
Jack