Honestly, if you only run in dry sugar type sand, you might not notice at all. Also I'll say that if your running the standard V-style 8 paddle run of the mill tire....It won't matter much. But if your running straight blade Scat-Trac tires, the vibration you feel when rolling across a hard flat surface is a strong example of the side to side force your bearings are feeling.
You don't HAVE to line them up. But don't get defensive when people point it out. At the worst it would only require that you rotate one hub on the splines to get them in sync.
You do it once and your set for as long as you own those tires.......
the only time I get the vibration at all was when I had em lined up and hit wet sand! Maybe it would make a diffence in if you were just cursing to wear your paddle where hooking up close to 100% but I never do that I'm either in it hard or riding short blips of the throttle where my paddle are spinning kicking up sand
An another you say I had did it wrong but then say your don't have to ? Witch is it ?