I did live without them on my last 5 tractors (Over 40 years). Now that I have a QA loader I bought a set and use them all the time. They were well worth the $524. I spent on them.
Used them for lifting Logs, brush, car engines, transmissions, car rear axle, pallet load of bagged salt, other implements to move them, front of car trailer lifted to undercoat it, ATV for easy service, shop air compressor, and anything else I need to lift.
That said, I won't be giving mine up. I unload pallets of chicken feed of the semi with mine. Also I move logs with them. I also stack firewood on some pallets I built that have side boards. Each holds between 1/3-1/2 a cord. I can sometimes cut a tree, split the rounds on the ground, then load on the pallet. That's lifting it by hand once. Then store the pallet wherever I want for a year. Then I can move the pallet to within 3' of my maple syrup evaporator (main firewood eater) then I lift each piece a second time to put it in the stove. Lots of guys talk about handling wood 7-8 times. More than 3-4 is too much for me. Pallet forks make that possible.
I also use them to dig in the ground (take 1 fork off), and to simultaneously remove and collect t-posts.