The engine actually has very good compression so I don't want to touch the piston's in their bores. However it knocks badly on a cold start and then knocks moderately.
After the oil loss the engine knocked so badly for a week I thought it would blow up any second or any minute or anyday. But it turned out the oil loss had damaged the fuel pump and when I replaced it with a spare pump, a lot of the knock went away

The crankshaft journals look okay. The connecting rod bearings are all scuffed.
The crankshaft main bearings also look okay.
Because the connecting rod's dont get as much lubrication in normal operation as the the bearings I would think they survived since the piston rings survived. Also if the knocking was from a bad connecting rod, perhaps the rods should have failed by now.

Its a shame the engine looks clean inside. I was thinking of replacing the connecting rod bearings and then firing the engine up on a test stand with radiator and exhaust hooked up in my garage to hear what it sounded like before putting it in my car. I did that before when I rebuilt engines, dont laugh.

The thing that makes me wonder is it knocked horrificly once and I expected to find something really amiss when I opened the engine.