we have one of those easy up ones, 10x10 I believe, we only use it if it won't over crowd the site, not sure if we will require it as much as our new unit has a 19 foot awning and the last was only 14, amazing what 5 extra feet means with a picnic table and a couple lawn chairs.
our next trip I will moniter the long range forcast for that area for a couple days before we leave and see what may be coming that way, if theres a couple days of rain we'll bring it, if its less than 2 days we'll leave it home.
we have an awning shade screen for those spots where you end up in the sun with little to no shade