I took up mountain biking last summer and was going to try to stay with conventional lubes. After a week I couldn’t stand the black mess the chain, chainring & cassette had become and the corresponding “tattoos” on my calves. Since I’ve been waxing my road bike chains for years I purchased 3 more chains for my mountain bike so I could have a 4 chain rotation like the road bike.
Ten months later I’m 100% satisfied with the results and will never go back wet lubes. I run 125-150 miles between chain swaps and my drivetrain remains very quiet and never squeaks. This is using plain Jane Gulf Wax with a little nano PTFE since I had it laying around. The chain is probably the cleanest thing in the bike most of the time. Caveat, I live and ride in the desert so no wet riding, streams, mud etc. but have lots of fine dust most of the time. On the rare occasions when it does rain, I take the day off.