Hi Jack (it's Jack, right?),
in the end it all depends on what you want to do with your models. Every asset in any 3D game that you might have played has been meticulously modeled, probably retopoed, unwrapped, mapped, and painted (lately now using PBR workflows). So if you want to see your asset in a game engine, animate it, or if you are part of a production pipeline, unwrapping is just part of the deal. And professionals will always prefer manually unwrapping to the automatic solutions many tools offer because otherwise you lose control which will! haunt you sooner or later.
On the other hand if all you're after are pretty pictures (and sometimes that is all it takes) you can get away with an application like Owlet. These tools provide you with procedural textures and/or will automatically apply a simple uv box mapping for you, maybe even tri-planar, which will work in a lot of cases. But again you give up control for convenience. And you won't be able to export your materials as PBR maps to use them in other applications like Marmoset Toolbag, Unity, etc.
Anyway, I'd say go for Owlet now and see how far it carries you. You can always step up your game later if you feel its limits.
Regards,
Sven
Edit: I've been playing around with the Substance Alchemist beta and the results that one can achieve are impressive (forgotten temple, melting snow). So there are rewards for choosing the "other" way ;)
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