It depends.  (Dewey may have trademarked the answer but I have priors it).  :-)

It can be just fine.  You need to do your reliability due diligence 
based on your particular supplier and your particular pwb.  Stronger 
isn't always better. Sometimes it just means something else in the 
chain breaks -- maybe even sooner.

For example, if the plating closes at the knee but leaves a void in 
the middle of the barrel you risk "blowing the lid off" the via as 
entrapped chemistry expands during reflow.  Ask me how I know. /heh

At 10:56 AM 10/15/2008, Dave Connitt wrote:
>List,
>We are considering changing our vias from plated holes with a tolerance
>of +/-.003 to +.000 -(hole diameter) to basically fill the vias with
>plating. The reason for this is due the the nature of our products. Does
>anybody know of any down side to plating vias closed? The typical finish
>is HASL on our boards and we have been tenting the vias.
>Our goal is to make the via connection as robust as possible. We were
>even considering using z-wires in all vias but plating them shut seems
>much less labor intensive.
>Thanks,
>Dave Connitt CID+
>Printed Circuit Designer
>KDI Precision Products, Inc.
>A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of:
>L3 Communications
>3975 McMann Road
>Cincinnati, Ohio 45245
>Ph. 513- 943-2010   Fax 513-943-2288
>
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