Ok, seriously folks: Drive chains are a pressed together assembly. To the OP: yes the chains individual parts are treated with the grease you are referring to before being assembled. It is just good manufacturing practice, in most cases, to use an assembly lube when pressing components together. Of course, the grease is formulated to prevent corrosion in the time after being assembled and when it is put into service.
If one is going to use a liquid lube I see no need to degrease as the factory grease is a better lube than any liquid lube. Mainly the grease is better because it is inside the chain from the get-go, also it does not wick trail grit into the chain nearly as badly a liquid lubes do. However, the chain is doomed to be ground down internally by a grinding compound made of trail grit and lube oil anyway.
Most folks who use liquid lubes don't realize that they are creating a near perfect grinding compound inside their chains. Just roll a liquid lubed chain that has had a fair amount of trail time back and forth between your finger and thumb and feel that familiar crunchiness, that is trail made grinding compound.
I will concede that in a contamination free environment many liquid chain lubes will outperform Squirt chain lube. However, in real world trail conditions Squirt lubed chains stay crunchiness free, and therefore free of internal grinding compound. I'm sure that is why I now get about 10x more chain life than when I was using liquid lubes.
Yes, I tried all the liquid bike chain lubes mentioned in this thread, and many more, before discovering Squirt.
I am a manufacturing engineer.