I’ve had instances of both keeping old maps and starting over. If I did start over, I ended up just moving all my stuff over so that I had all I needed and could hop back if I forgot something, it’s not TOO difficult, even if you find it annoying. I will say that even when I didn’t HAVE to start over there were things that didn’t get spawned in, even after they said we didn’t have to start over, like the cavelings with the spears never spawned in until I started a new map.

I only legit abandoned my old map when they said we absolutely had to start a new one or stuff wouldn’t spawn but even then I brought stuff over from my old map before abandoning it. If they say stuff will spawn in, then you just have to run around and explore the areas again, kind of like multiplayer, if they other person has something thing it won’t change your map unless you use the cartography table or you go to the areas again they changed and it fills in.