One of the downsides of only referring to instructions with fragile toys or complex ones (which is what I do), is that I often find out later that I missed a feature, gimmick or transformation step, at least on the more complex toys.
I feel that it's like watching a movie - it's only a surprise once, so don't spoil it by reading the script first - I see TFs as puzzles, that give you a sense of acheivement when you figure it out on your own. Every time after that is no challange, so I like to at least once see if I can figure out the 'puzzle'.
If I have any trouble, I do refer to photos on the packaging, and then the instructions as a last resort, or if it is a known fragile toy (MP Starscream).
But like I mentioned above, since I rarely have the time to go back through the instructions, I often find stuff later that would have been revealed in the instructions.
Although rarely, the instructions have been knonw to leave out stuff, making figuring it out one way of finding the 'natural flow of its engineering'. If that makes sense.