Does not scouting with sheep (unless necessary, no scout for example or nomad) really hinder a player's ability or is it more of a minuscule advantage in being able to scout the enemy quicker and potentially lame?

I'm talking mainly about Arabia here, for Arena it's relatively safe and easy to scout your base with sheep, as well as in nomad and other random maps where it's necessary for map vision.

But in Arabia I just always find myself scouting less efficiently with my scout and getting close to similar results compared to not using sheep at all.

I'm just thinking whether or not it's really necessary for the average player who just wants to execute strategies flawlessly to scout with sheep.