: I'd like to hear what the consensus is on the importance of end pours.
Jack,
End pours are a pain but a necessary evil if there is no other way to seal and strenghten the stems of your boat. The stem timber is one of the heaviest used in traditional wooden boats because of all the stresses concentrated in the ends of a boat. Omitting some strengthening in the ends is a mistake.

Personally, I don't like the idea of a big lump of brittle plastic in the nose of the boat. If at all possible I try to get saturated fiberglass tape into the pointy ends. I find a stick with narrow wedge works well to force the tape into place. By narrow, I mean 16:1 slope. The glass wants to lay flat and the wedge forces its center into the "v". This means the tape will open and adhere to the opposite sides of the hull. Sometimes you may have to get a small roller in there to get things to lay down.
Geo. C.