I think MaryJane brings up a great point. It all has to do with your water. She has experience with her water and it serves her well. Me, on the other hand, I have water that is about 7.5+ and when I add nutes the Ph goes all to hell. If I didn't test it, I would be in deep trouble.
When I first started growing, I had all kinds of problems and could not figure it out. After some answers from RIU, it was determined it was due to Ph. I started testing my water ever since. I won't ever water without testing.
Lots of factors involved but as MaryJane has said, once you learn your nutes and water, you can probably get by without testing. I am not smart enough to keep up with it all so I just test it, make adjustments where needed and go on.
I have only been growing for a few years but I use the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method and to me, testing keeps things simple, especially if I encounter problems.