It's not that it won't work for a short period, but what happens when several years pass and expansion and contraction starts happening at those joints? I've just stuck track together with the factory joiners and/or pins, and it works for quite some time, then gradually high resistance joints start showing up.
You're probably right about what happens, both loose and oxidized over the long run. I just don't have a lot of faith that it'll be a long term fix. If you have scenery in place and maybe ballast, it's a whole lot harder and more labor intensive to start wiring track then. Just having conversation here, obviously the only way to really know if it's a long term fix is to wait long term. 
