The average consumer will blindly follow the computer or dealer recommendation, which is about 20k Km or once every 2 or 3 years. But I've also read posts of some doing 30k Km, others 15k Km, so it obviously depends on the person. Enthusiasts tend to stick closer to 15k Km, and there are some that go as low as 10k Km, but those are rare.
In the meantime, pretty much every person and shop around my area sticks to the 5k miles interval. In our local car club, a few do 3-4k miles changes, whereas the "normal" people I've met here stick to 5-7k miles.
And yeah, around here rod bearings are only gonna be an issue on the S54. Like I said, with US oil change intervals, we don't need to worry about our M54s.
P.S.: This thread for example is telling the OP that the "normal interval" he should be using on his E46 is 30k Km or every 3 years: https://www.motor-talk.de/forum/oelw...-t5490323.html
P.P.S.: In miles, the typical German intervals are 10k, 15k and 20k, just for clarification.