A good friend would have gotten us all one. ?
• The torque setting comes from the stretch of the bolt's shank, so 'Yes' torque either end to achieve the same tightness.
• I use Never-Seeze on lug nuts and blade mounting bolts... fasteners exposed to a lot of water that are only moved once every several years. That's a good idea.
• However, Never-Seeze would be considered a "Lubricant" and thereby reduces maximum torque values. So you might want to consult torque tables that account "bolt tightening with lubricants".
And here in lies the rub
It is deformation of the thread, not stretch of the bolt
If you think you can stretch a steel bolt over 1/16" diameter with hand tools you are deluding yourself .
Stretch gets used all sorts of places where it is plain wrong
Wound Bowden cable does not stretch, it unwinds so it gets longer
Chains do not stretch, the side plate holes wear oval so the chain gets longer
Kevlar reinforced belts do not stretch, they wear thin so go loose on the pulley.
When you tighten a bolt, you add strain energy to the bolt and apply a shear force to the threads
The threads can creep a little before they yield and strip out but the bolt remains the same length .
When mechanics & engineers were taught properly we used to get them to tighten brass bolts to different torques then mount , section & polish them for microscopic examination .
We used brass bolts because brass grains exhibit a distinctive slip pattern when the move called "Twinning" which is easy to identify under the microscope.
Then the students would examine the bolts end to end & side to side to see where the deformation actually happened.