They make marking paint that burns at specific temperatures. I use Tempilaq to determine how hot my necks get. Lapua anneals their brass as you can tell by the discoloration around the neck, and all military loads I have seen are annealed, so I am sure someone has done lab test to find the...
I anneal not just to extend life of my brass but to also increase neck tension consistency. Here is an example of my personal test that convinced me. Here I annealed 6 cases and left 6 un-annealed. I loaded them and shot for groups. My Annealed brass out performed my un-annealed brass...