I haven't needed lockers yet, and I do some pretty extreme stuff. I would probably use a winch before lockers, even though I don't have a winch yet either. The times I have needed recovering, a locker wouldn't have helped anyway.
It's all personal choice, the general theme with the 4WD world is to build your vehicle (I refuse to call it a truck) with all the gear regardless of whether you need it all or not. I go the other way, I drive the car to it's limit, then replace/modify/upgrade the parts that let me down so I can do it next time. The balance for my car seemed to be 3" lift and 31" tyres, it went well, but I had clearance issues, so I went 33" tyres and broke diffs. Then you all know the next step from there.
The way I look at it is to build the car to do what YOU want it to do and not have a car with all the fruit and be a shiny tree in the orchard to show off to all your mates. I might get some smart comments at the start of a trip, but my car is one of the few that tackle and make the harder lines. No lockers, no winch, no fancy roofrack with an awning hanging off it. It's built for a purpose not for a pissing contest.
Having said that, I will be getting a winch soon as I hate relying on others when I get stuck. And the places I do get stuck, very few could get to me anyway.