> A lot of these Cathedrals managed to survive long period of neglect with minimal to no maintenance.
If by "minimal maintenance" you mean frequent rebuilding after fires, refurnishing, extension of the building and stylistic changes, and almost continuous restoration effort, they you're right, of course.
No, many buildings in this style really were left virtually unmaintained for centuries at a time. The only really essential maintenance is clearing the gutters, and that's only necessary in certain biomes. Of course they needed full refurnishing afterwards, but the shell of a solid stone building is pretty resilient, being, well, solid stone.
A lot of these Cathedrals managed to survive long period of neglect with minimal to no maintenance.
There is a bit of survivor bias in there, but it's also a testament to the durability of these buildings.