Pet photogr shooting when that dog decided to lick the lens, cleaning filters better than cleaning lens.
Wedding photogr get sprayed with champagne, or party photog when drunk people starts hurling cakes at you, again prefer to clean filters than actual lens.
Industrial photogr documenting men at work doing welding doing wide angle shots fire sparks flying into the lens, I had personally wipe off soot and burn marks off my filter, beats doing it in actual lens.
Another industrial situation documenting a aerosol spray procedure, paint and chemical literally flying in the air that lands and solidify on your filter, instead of lens.
Photojournalist outside courthouse shooting an emotional and aggressive defendant who threw his handphone straight into the lens.
Sea sprays and saltwater, volcanic ashes in the air.
Things people never experienced, they never know.
Filter degrading images is overrated, a thing for pixel peepers, really matters for large print landscapes probably. But most of the time filter will not degrade the contents of a news story, will not degrade your composition, will not degrade your creative idea, will not make emotions captured less emotional or stories less meaningful.
I don't use filter for my 14-24 for obvious reasons, I don't use filter when in studio too, coz I and frequently lighting the background and filters sometimes coz ghosting or contrast problems.
Not wise to take a sweeping stand. Do whatever that works.