It's not that hard to learn to replace a spoke or to adjust tension on those near a broken spoke to give you a better chance of riding home. I started riding again in the '80s on a mountain bike (after a 10-year post college layoff), and it was a point of pride to be able to fix anything that went wrong on a real MB ride, a day trip of 20-50 miles, not a jaunt down the MUT. We carried spares and tools, and i've replaced many spokes by the side of the trail. I still can't BUILD a wheel, but I can troubleshoot one pretty successfully.
If you weigh more than 175 or so, I think you're likely to have trouble with low-spoke count wheels, so repair is a useful skill to master. I go about 240, and I don't mess with anything less than 32 spokes, 36 for most of my riding.