Rust on exterior of galvanized pipes = sign of imminent fail?

In reference to this thread:

https://terrylove.com/forums/showth...vice-on-house-repipe-and-old-galvanized-pipes

When I was up in the attic with the plumber last night while he was assessing the situation for his quote, we found one galvanized pipe that had what looked like 3 rusted, crusted over areas with the vague appearance that water had dripped down from them at some time (think ancient water channels on the surface of Mars!). The plumber's take on this was that those were actually pinhole leaks that had effectively "sealed" themselves b/c of the hard, rusty water.

Now, I don't know if he was blowing hot air or being legitimately concerned, but he said that we are going to have a failure of that pipe and possibly many other gal pipes in the house sooner rather than later.

So, my question: is this possible? That is, could those have actually been pinhole leaks that sealed themselves? And, obviously, the pipes are in bad shape, but is this a ticking time bomb?

Thanks.

My parents have an old house plumbing was added in the twenties,
A few years ago I noticed a pipe that was leaking along the bottom, apeared to be a seam in the galvanized pipe.

They use hard well water and the pipe stopped leaking on its own.

It may break it may not, but at the moment its not leaking. And now they are talking about moving the house which would provide an opertunity of fixing a lot of the crappy repairs done over the years.