I think you can go either way as far as putting something on when you first get it. When seeing many used boats come in for repair it's usually the skid plate area that has the most wear. My opinion is I'd rather put on a skid plate before the damage is done... But I can see the point where they might slow the canoe down or add those precious ouces to the overall weight of the canoe. So it's all prefrence... your prefrence. I wouldn't put anything over the integrated ones right away, but would do so before they were tore up too bad. They wear like anything else. I personally would do anything to preserve my investment the best I can without getting too crazy. Scratches? I'm like you, I don't get anal about it but do my best to take care of my canoe. The bottom of my boat says I need to get more anal about it. The good news is I can repair them when they get too bad. The kind of canoeing I do is pretty demanding like I suppose most people here. Your going to get a fair amount of scratching and such over time. But the front skid plate area takes the worst in my opinion, so I'd keep an eye on it and cover it with proper stuff before it gets to bad. I think kevlar felt is the toughest for the weight, but will have to check out the new stuff at copia if they are there.