Anecdotal of course, but I've owned every phone that's launched (well, one phone per generation of course), never with any screen protectors, and I've gotten nothing more than a few minor scratches in the past.

The screen on my X, which I use heavily and every single day since launch, is virtually pristine. Inspecting it right now I can find 2 micro-scratches (both on the edge), and that's it. If anything, this screen has held up better than previous ones.

I'm in the exact same boat. Better treatment than I've given to an iPhone 6s and iPhone 5, and despite neither of those phones ever having had any visible scratches, my iPhone X is COVERED in microscratches. And to be clear, always used a case with a lip, always placed in pocket without any other items.

Is it possible that the X is also seeing fewer cracked screens? I imagine there's a correlation between hardness of the glass and tendency to crack.

There's always been a balancing act with Gorilla Glass, there's been at least one version (I think it was Gorilla Glass 2 or 3) of the product that had noticeably less scratch resistance than it's predecessor while providing better durability against cracking - wouldn't surprise me if we see a repeat with Gorilla Glass 5.

Adding another data point here -- my iPhone X screen is full of small scratches. It's really noticeable.

Are they deep or possibly just coating on the glass?

Definitely in the glass, and several are very deep.

Because of where i live and when the phone launched, it literally hasn't even been around sand yet because the weathers been awful

I believe the iPhone 1 didn't have an oleophobic coating, which I think is what normally gets scratched. IIRC it was just plain glass, which is a lot harder to scratch.