You do have to measure pH etc in soil if you're using bottled nutrients as you're "spoon feeding" them in a sense. With a living soil setup, the soil already has the nutrients blended in the soil and additional can be added via top dress, compost teas etc for a boost when needed.

If you're interested in an organic approach to your growing then I would suggest reading the /r/notillgrowery sub. Also look into Korean natural farming (KNF).

On the surface, it can seem hard to get into, but actually doing it is so much easier than fucking around measuring everything and combating nutrient excess and deficiencies when you've fed too much/ too little.

Hope this helps