Not sure if 'should', but I do use it. A fast-starting .emacs.d allows being liberal with how often you quit / restart it. I have the habit of doing a few restarts a day for avoiding accumulating useless (potentially problematic) state. I use the server as launched from a GUI app, mainly for scripting the GUI app. Also, occasionally, for editing files from iTerm.

I've been an emacs user for 30+ years. I don't do this. I can see how under certain usage patterns it might make sense, but it definitely doesn't work for the way I use it. I tend to work on different tasks on different desktops. I keep the emacs for that task open for the life of the task, perhaps restarting every now and then if I feel I'm accumulating too much cruft or want to pick up updates.

aside from fast startup, also try emacsclient -nw over ssh on your phone

> I use the server as launched from a GUI app, mainly for scripting the GUI app. which GUI app? Is it a linux package?

> perhaps restarting every now and then if I feel I'm accumulating too much cruft or want to pick up updates. Yea, if it's leads to more oddity orthogonal to the task at hand, then it's not worth the 4 seconds it takes emacs to power up and get me back to where i was.

> which GUI app? Is it a linux package? it's simply emacs packaged as a macos .app which has a native os integration, etc. Contrariwise, a pure binary can only run in the terminal, so it's a less rich experience

I run the server by starting emacs with emacs --daemon and have a few keybindings in my .zshrc like

bindkey -s "^x^f" $'^aemacsclient -c -nw '

alias magit="emacsclient -nw -c -e '(magit-status)'"

also ... I set export EDITOR='emacsclient -nw -c' which makes life better when using terminal programs like git or mutt 😉

I also used to float around emacs daemon and connect to it on-demand, but from some moment on I just close the laptop lid and go 😂