I am currently grinding sm64 for a sub 20 in the 16 star category my best segment wf is 3:26

It saves 6 seconds on n64 and 3 on emu/vc. If you miss it once, you are going to lose time. I recommend going for it if you want a 17/16 :D

If you are a beginner, then do it normal. Once you get better, then do owlless

Owlless is well worth it but only when youre trying to get a Really good time

Learn other tricks to save time or do harder stars instead.