I have thought about this allot. I did not hood my early birds, as I never learned how. I did ok, but then I needed to take a bird to the vet for a severed extensor tendon and do a bit of work on her subsequent to bringing her home. I vowed after that to ALWAYS hood train my birds and now I love it. You are correct, there are very few situations where a hood is an inescapable necessity but for me it has come down to the simple fact that I have hawks to hunt with them and the only reason I train them is to hunt them. If I didn't hunt I wouldn't train. Given that, the hood one remarkably good, safe and effective management tool in a multitude of situations. True you could probably train the bird to deal with most of those situations but honestly I don't want to, I want to hunt, put the bird away and hunt the next day. I don't even like keeping them over the summer. Many people find just as much enjoyment in training as they do in hunting, and for them, great, have at it. their birds are undoubtedly better trained than mine. I still suggest you make your bird to the hood, as it will make both your and their life easier. and the bottom line with passage birds is stress kills. However you choose to do it if you want to keep a passage bird for any length of time, you should really focus on keeping stress down, your bird will thank you, and live longer.