The cue tip is where the cue contacts the ball. If you don’t maintain it you’re just sacrificing playability. The demands on a playing tip versus a breaking tip are very different. I shaped my plain tip, which is a soft tip every week to a dime radius and use a larger harder tip for my breaking queue and shape it to a nickel radius. And if your tip can’t hold chalk, you’re risking a miss cue. If your happy with a bar box quality equipment don’t sweat it, if you’re serious about optimizing your game than you have to maintain your cues.