applying mirror or not?

im wondering it its a universal norm to actually apply a mirror modifier rather than having the mesh be a half segment. i mean this in the sense of working with completely symmetrical models. am i limiting myself by having the mesh be a mirrored half mesh? should i apply the mirror in general?

Yo. Nes. Impossible to answer “in general”.
What kinds of models are we talking about? What do you plan to do with them? What is the intended workflow with those meshes? Form follows function (well, you get the gist…).

only if and when you have too :wink: